


My Path As the Trickster Is As Tricky As I Expected

by mibushaiku



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series, やはり俺の青春ラブコメはまちがっている。 - 渡航 | My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU - Watari Wataru, やはり俺の青春ラブコメはまちがっている。 | My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU (Anime)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Eventual Relationships, F/M, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-14 22:28:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 31,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29798808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mibushaiku/pseuds/mibushaiku
Summary: The game has always been rigged. But this time, someone or something took it a step further. He was supposed to go to Shujin Academy, but instead, Ren finds out that he has to attend Sobu High School instead. After a rocky first day in Sobu, he now has to balance being a Phantom Thief and a Service Club member. Truly, this path as a Trickster is tricky indeed.
Relationships: Ren Amamiya & Yukino Yukinoshita, Ren Amamiya/Yukino Yukinoshita
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	1. 1

Ren Amamiya could confirm: cleaning this attic was easier said than done. As he dusted another cobweb off the shelf filled with miscellaneous things along the wall, he wondered when his guardian had last been in here.

In fact, he wondered if he was supposed to be rooming in here at all. When he first met Sojiro Sakura, he was already closing down Café Leblanc. And when Ren asked him where he would be staying, he could have sworn he heard the older man mention something about not having room in his house before leaving him in the attic.

Sakura-san saying that there _might_ be a bed _somewhere_ here only reinforced that thought.

Regardless, beggars (and students who were wrongfully accused of breaking the law) couldn't be choosers. This was going to be his room until his probation ended, and he was going to be sure to try not to stand out in order to make his probation go as smoothly as possible.

Ren wiped the sweat that was building up on his forehead as he checked his progress. The attic looked a bit clearer now. The desk on the corner was still piled high with god-knows-what, but at least the floor and the walls were free of debris and cobwebs.

There was just one box left that sat at the center of the attic.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps climb the staircase that led to the attic, causing him to turn around. His guardian's head unveiled itself as he ascended the stairs.

Once he got to the top, the older man, who had ditched his workwear and was now wearing a casual cream suit, scanned Ren's work.

"Huh, so that's what all this noise was. So you actually were cleaning. Impressive," Sakura-san whistled impressively, but Ren could hear just a drip of condescension in his praise.

Ren bit back his tongue as he kept his ire contained. "Yeah, but I think this is all the cleaning I'll be able to do tonight. We're going to Shujin Academy early tomorrow, right?"

His guardian raised an eyebrow, as if he were confused about Ren's statement.

"No, we'll be going to Sobu High School. You really think a prestigious academy like that will take you in?" Sojiro frowned, caressing his goatee, before continuing, "But Sobu is also rather prestigious. I wonder why they would accept you…"

Ren furrowed his brow, as he contemplatively stared down. Sobu? Since when was it Sobu? He could have sworn that in his probationary agreements, he would attend Shujin Academy.

Not only that, but he was here in Tokyo. If they were talking about the same Sobu, then he'd have to take quite the journey. It just didn't seem plausible or efficient to be living here and then going to school in another city.

"Well, you probably got it mixed up, since they both start with an S," Sakura-san said, breaking him out of his thoughts. The older man reached behind his back and he pulled out a small black journal, tossing it to the raven-haired teen. "Here, one of the requirements of your probation is that you have to write down your progress. Make sure to stay on top of that. I have to give a report to your probation officer every few months."

Ren managed to catch the small leather-bound book before it hit the ground. It was a little bit larger than his hand, but it didn't seem thick enough to hold a year's worth of progress.

' _Not that it matters, since I'll be doing the same thing every day anyways…'_ he thought, before looking back up at Sojiro. "Thanks. I'll be sure to."

"Sure. Just remember, this is your last chance, if you cause trouble, I won't hesitate to—"

_Vrrrrrr! Vrrrrr! Vrrrrr!_

The older man sighed, whipping his phone out of his pocket. He checked the screen briefly before answering it, and Ren swore he saw the older man's eyes soften a bit.

"Hello?...Yeah, don't worry. No, I have it right here. Yes, yes, I'll be there soon...okay...bye."

The phone call ended with a click, and he pocketed his phone. "That's my cue. Wake up early tomorrow, we'll be heading out to meet your principal and your homeroom teacher...at _Sobu_."

"Alright," Ren replied simply, though his cheekier side wanted to come out and ask about the phone call. But he was too distant with the man at the moment to be able to make those types of jokes. He did just get away from a lecture. No sense in inviting another one.

And with that, Sakura-san grunted, as if he were satisfied with this interaction, before turning around and heading down the stairs. The lights that emanated from the downstairs café clicked off, and Ren heard the soft jingling of a bell and a lock clicking into place, indicating that the man finally left.

He sighed in relief.

' _That went...okay...?'_ he thought, as he opened the last box.

At least, that interaction had been a bit better than the others he'd had so far ever since stepping foot into this establishment. The moment he arrived at Leblanc, his guardian had been giving him a rough time, constantly reminding him about his position. He was getting fed up with it, and if he were to be honest, he almost lashed out at the older man.

But he kept his tongue on a leash. The whole ordeal was mentally taxing, and he didn't want to get even more on his guardian's bad side than he already was. If he could just live an honest student's life, then this year would pass by without incident.

He found a pair of faded blue pajamas and changed into them, placing his old clothes onto the couch that sat along the wall.

Afterwards, he turned off the lights and headed for his discovered bed on the far side of the attic. When he climbed into it, he stared up at the ceiling. He could see the faint glow of the moon from the corners of his eyes, illuminating the room through the window.

Today was a long day.

And hopefully now...he can rest.

His eyes closed slowly, his tire finally catching up to him as he entered his well-deserved slumber.

Dreams. They were an interesting thing that contain an abstract meaning, leading to multiple theories on what they actually are. Some say they were premonitions of things that could occur in the future. Others say they were a glimpse into a different reality. A parallel universe. There were many more theories, though it was mostly those two theories that were brought up the most.

Which did he believe? He wasn't sure.

In this particular dream, though, he found himself walking through a bustling plaza on a sunny day, passing by a station entrance that said 'Shibuya Station'.

Ahhh, so he was here again. The same station he took to get to Yongen-Jaya.

Autonomously, he made his way to the center of the plaza. A man shouting garble into a megaphone was stationed to his left, attracting a crowd with his incomprehensible words.

And all of a sudden, time seemed to stop, and he did too, though only to watch the environment halt. It was as if someone pressed pause on the remote. People were frozen midstep. A group of kids playing jump rope to his right were frozen midjump. And the orator to his left was frozen midword.

' _What was going on?'_

He wanted to dart his head around, but his head only scanned the scene before him slowly, as if he was still trying to process what just happened.

And then he saw it. From across the plaza came a billowing blue fire that seemed to meld into some...humanoid shape. He couldn't help but be entranced by the mystical blue flame, and he watched as a giant pillar of fire burst upwards consuming the civilians around it.

He wanted to shout, to tell them to get out of there, but it was hopeless. He could only watch.

Within the pillar of blue flames, a set of narrow, jagged eyes formed along with an equally devilish smile.

The flames spoke.

" _Unfortunately for you, Trickster, the cards have been reshuffled, and the path you were meant to take is no longer the one available to you."_

The words rang throughout the plaza, before seeping into his mind.

" _Either way...I shall be with you until the end."_

And just like that, the flames disappeared and time resumed to move forward. He turned to watch the kids, who were stuck midjump, finally land as the rope swung upwards again before restarting the cycle.

' _That was a strange dream…'_ he thought groggily, as he absentmindedly brushed his teeth. Through half opened eyelids, he stared at himself through the bathroom mirror.

Today, he was going to Soubu High School. And knowing how far Chiba was from Tokyo, he had to get up early, lest he be on the lecturing end of Sojiro already.

Spitting out the minty foam that accumulated in his mouth, he rinsed his mouth with water before spitting that out too. After that, he splashed his face with cold water. It didn't wake him up fully, but it did its job.

After drying his face, he left the bathroom stall of the café and climbed back upstairs, bringing his toiletries with him.

At the top, he checked his phone for the time.

6:58.

He had to be at Sobu by 8:30. He still had time. His guardian was probably going to pick him up at 7:30 or 7:45.

As he tossed his phone onto his bed, he pulled out his box of clothes and...wait.

Did he have to wear his uniform today? He never got his uniform for Sobu. He remembered receiving the uniform for Shujin, but apparently since he wasn't going to Shujin anymore…

He ran his hands through the contents of the box, pushing aside his casual clothes as he searched for the uniform. Maybe he could just wear Shujin's uniform and—

' _No way…'_ he found...or rather he hadn't found what he was looking for. At the bottom of the box, instead of the plaid trousers of Shujin were plain black pants. And instead of the black blazer accessorized with red buttons, he found a simple black jacket with white lining. A green tie was folded neatly on top of the white button up.

"I don't…" he started, as he pulled the replaced uniform out. "I don't remember packing this. Or even receiving this. What's going on?"

Was going to Shujin Academy just a figment of his imagination? Or was he being tricked?

"Ah, you're up," came Sakura-san's voice, which caused Ren to jump slightly. He turned to look back at the man standing by the staircase, wearing the same type of clothes he wore yesterday. "Hurry up and put that on, we're leaving in a bit. I'll only drive you there today. After this, you'll have to get to Sobu by train."

With that, the café owner headed back down the stairs to give him his privacy.

Ren nodded absentmindedly as he changed out of his pajamas and into the uniform. It was strange. Wearing Sobu's uniform felt...wrong. Like he wasn't supposed to be doing this.

He grabbed his box of clothes and returned it to its spot before heading over to his bed to collect his phone. He checked it briefly before heading down the stairs to meet with Sakura-san.

7:05.

Earlier than he expected.

The ride to Sobu was shorter than what he expected. Despite the morning traffic, it only took about fifty minutes to reach the front of the school.

When they got there, Sakura-san parked his car and as Ren got out, he couldn't help but stare at the school. The main building was rather large, scaling at four floors, with a set of large stairs that led up to the entrance.

The more he stared, however, he saw an image of a school three stories high flicker briefly, veiling Sobu's campus. Even a sign in front appeared, saying "Shujin Academy".

"Come on, enough staring. Let's go," his guardian said, breaking Ren out of his thoughts. The older man began to walk ahead, unwilling to wait for him.

Ren opened his mouth to speak, but when he looked back at the building, it returned to the normal Sobu building.

' _I must still be tired,'_ Ren thought, as he began to walk, catching up to Sojiro by the time he reached the top of the stairs.

When they were about to enter, Ren felt a hand grip his shoulder and he turned to look at the older man who glared at him with an intimidating look.

"Do me a favor and be on your best behavior. Don't get me wrong, I don't care what happens to you, but I don't want you causing me trouble," he said, before continuing inside, not waiting for Ren's response.

Ren sighed, but said nothing else. In the end, he couldn't escape another tongue lashing from Sakura-san.

He followed the older man inside and they traversed the halls, before finally coming to a stop at a door. A small placard on top read "Reception Room."

"Remember what I said," Sakura-san warned, eyeing Ren from the side before sliding the door open and stepping in.

"Yeah," he replied quietly, before following him in.

The reception room was small, with placards and achievements decorating the walls, no doubt meant to impress whomever entered. Even Sojiro couldn't help but stare in awe at the vast amount of achievements on the wall.

There was one such achievement that seemed to receive the most attention out of all of them. In a glass case, was a picture of a man, holding a tennis racquet and a medal.

Ren blinked and the tennis racquet was replaced by volleyball briefly. Blinking again, and he found that the tennis racquet returned in his hands. He shook his head slightly before reading the placard underneath it.

' _Suguru Kamoshida, 20XX'_

At the center was a small table, with two leather couches located on the front, which faced the far end of the room and the back, which faced the entrance.

On the back couch, sat a large bald man wearing a beige suit. His eyes and mouth were small and beady, like a gopher. Standing to his right was, in contrast, an attractive woman wearing a lab coat. Her long black hair almost reached the hem of her coat. And they greeted the two with a smile.

"Hello, hello! You're early!" The large man spoke cheerfully, outstretching his arms, "Welcome to Sobu High School. Please, take a seat!"

He gestured to the open couch in front of them and the two sat down.

"You must be Sakura-san. And this is…?" The large man dropped his arms, before setting his beady eyes on Ren. He felt a slight chill crawl through his spine.

"Ren Amamiya," he replied politely. A small niggling thought crept into the back of his mind.

' _He's not supposed to be here,'_ it said, but he paid no heed to the thought.

"Amamiya-san. You must be the probationary student we'll be taking in," his cheerful voice was replaced by a stern voice, and he took out a stack of papers and a pen. "I'm Principal Kobayakawa. To my right is Shizuka Hiratsuka, your homeroom teacher."

Hiratsuka gave the pair a short wave before crossing her arms. Ren merely nodded back, while Sakuea-san…well…

"Why, hello there," he greeted back smoothly, "a pleasure to meet you."

Ren should've known he was going to pull a move like this. With comments like, "I never let guys sit in the passenger seat" or "I never give guys my phone number", it was like he was trying to be cool. And to be honest, it was kind of funny.

He noticed the corners of Hiratsuka's mouth twitch upward before settling back into a straight line.

"Ahem, Sakura-san," Principal Kobayakawa started, "I believe you have these papers to sign." He gestured to the stack of papers on the table and Sakura-san's cheeks reddened slightly.

Ren snapped his head away from the adults, trying to stifle his amusement.

"Anything funny, Amamiya-san?" Principal Kobayakawa asked menacingly.

Ren wiped the trace of amusement that managed to escape onto his face and shook his head in response.

He continued, "To reiterate, you will be expelled immediately if you cause trouble. In my opinion, you're nothing but a liability, but we had our circumstances to consider. Whatever you might have gotten away with back in your hometown, those days are over. If you get expelled. there will be nowhere for you to go. Keep that in mind."

Ren wanted to sigh in frustration, but kept it in. Another reminder of his circumstance. This was going to be held over him, wasn't it?

"I know," he replied calmly, but a trace of frustration left his voice.

He caught Hiratsuka furrow her brows slightly before they returned to a neutral position, and she began speaking. "Once again, I am Shizuka Hiratsuka, your homeroom teacher. Here's your student ID."

From her pockets, she procured a small plastic card with Ren's face on the corner and she held it out to him.

Ren stretched out his arm to take the ID, and he looked up at her. "Thank..."

When he did, he came face to face not with a woman with long black hair, but with a woman who had shoulder length curly hair and brown eyes. When he blinked, he was staring back into Hiratsuka's purple eyes.

"...you…" Ren finished, and he immediately looked downwards, trying to comprehend what just happened and who it was he just saw. He just hoped nobody else took it a different way.

"Make sure you read the school rules. Violations will send you to the guidance office. And since I'm a guidance counselor too, that means you'll be sent over to me. Come to the faculty office tomorrow before school. I'll show you our classroom," Hiratsuka said, seemingly unbothered by the lost-in-the-clouds moment Ren had. She turned to look to Kobayakawa with a menacing glare that was even more terrifying than the principal's, "And you are going to uphold your promise right?"

"O-Of course, Hiratsuka-sensei. You can have him first before the school does. But remember, he is responsible for his actions. After meeting with you, trouble that he causes will not be tolerated," the large man relented easily.

' _A promise?'_ Ren wondered, gazing up at the two adults before dismissing his curiosity. 

No. He was going to make this as easy for himself, Sobu, and Sakura-san. He wasn't going to need a promise or whatever it was that his new teacher had planned.

"There'll be no need for that, Hiratsuka-sensei," Ren found himself saying, earning everyone's attention. Hiratsuka stared at him with raised eyebrows. "I won't be causing trouble anyways. I'll be living an honest student's life while I'm here."

"Ha! We'll see about that... _boy_ ," Principal Kobayakawa said with a smirk.

Ren grit his teeth inwardly, but otherwise remained calm at the man's hostile advances. His principal wasn't going to make this year easy for him, it seemed.

"Is that all?" Sakura-san cut in, sliding the signed papers back to the larger man, "Do you mind if we leave? I have a store to get back to."

"Y-yes. We'll be seeing you here tomorrow, yes Amamiya-san? Early. Without incident," Principal Kobayakawa replied, as Ren and and his guardian rose from the couch.

"Yes," Ren replied, before the two began to walk out. As they were about to exit, they heard a voice. It seemed the principal had a few final words.

"Sakura-san? Please keep an eye on him. We don't want any trouble outside."

Sakura-san sighed, as if Ren's very presence was burdensome to him. Which, Ren figured, it probably was.

"Will do."

And with that, the two exited the room.

The ride back to Yongen-Jaya was silent. Ren could usually make do with silence, but the cold shoulder he was getting from many adults, including the man that was currently driving the car, was taking a toll on him.

" _Everyone's giving you the cold shoulder. That's what happens to people with criminal records."_

He found himself thinking back to that fateful night more recently. If he'd known his life was going to be like this, then would he have…?

No. He would have done the same thing again and again. He wasn't going to let an injustice like that occur in front of him.

He felt a bit better after his mental reaffirmation, and trying to prevent himself from overthinking anymore, he pulled out his phone to pass the time.

He scrolled through his phone to determine which app to use to pass the time. Maybe he should join in the hype with his peers and join Instagram?

' _No way, who'd follow a criminal like me?'_

Then maybe...the thumb that was being used to scroll through his phone halted, as it hovered over a red icon with an eye.

' _I don't remember downloading this…,'_ Ren thought. Though maybe he had. He wasn't sure. His mind has been playing tricks on him lately. First with Shujin, then the uniform...et cetera, et cetera.

On the other hand, this might be less of a mind trick. It might've been some bloatware that the phone automatically installed. He held down on the icon, prompting the phone to allow him to edit his homescreen, and he dragged the offending app to the trash can.

' _Are you sure you want to delete this?'_

He pressed yes, and the app disappeared.

"Ughhhhh….," he heard Sakura-san groan from beside him, causing Ren to look upwards. The streets were clogged with cars. "Traffic isn't moving at all!"

The older man tapped the steering wheel impatiently, urging for traffic to move. "We've been stuck here for fifteen minutes. You're taking the train starting tomorrow. No way in hell am I gonna trouble myself with this again."

The stoplight at the end of the block turned green, yet traffic still had yet to move. Ren heard various honking, but to no avail.

"Sure," Ren replied. He felt sort of sorry for the older man. He was mean, but Ren had been giving him trouble, intentional or not.

After that, another period of silence. The car in front finally began to move, if only a little scoot upwards, and Sojiro scooted up as well.

"So…," Sakura-san started awkwardly, still focusing on the road, "How do you like it? The school, I mean. Think you can manage?"

Ren's eyebrows raised slightly. That's surprising. Normal conversation for once.

"We'll see," Ren replied neutrally.

"Do you understand the situation you're in? One mistake and that's it." he shook his head in disapproval, "What a troublesome kid I've taken in."

Ren, once again, found himself frowning. This begged the question. One he felt he needed an answer to. It wasn't fair that he was being treated like this.

"...Why did you take me in then?"

"I...I was asked to do it. And I just...happened to agree to it. Besides, I already got paid for it," Sojiro said with a tone of finality. It seemed that was all he was going to get from that question. 

So his parents had already negotiated with this man? And they didn't even bother to tell him? He sighed. Of course, they probably didn't want to move all the way out here for his mistake anyways. No sense in dwelling on it.

In the end, he should be a bit more grateful that he was being taken in at all. No doubt, it would have been troublesome for his parents.

The two returned to silence, as traffic finally released its hold. The cars finally began to flow down the streets with ease.

Ren heard a blip, followed by the voice of a staticy newscaster.

"—And now, back to today's top stories, another subway train derailed, causing an inflow of traffic—"

Another blip and the radio turned off.

"Well that explained a lot," Sakura-san said as he mindlessly took a turn. "There's been a lot of those accidents lately. Matter of fact, there was a real sad one last month. Happened before you came here. Kid at Sobu got hit by a speeding car. Hundred on a forty. He was young too, about your age. His parents have gotta be just…"

Ren heard the shift in his traffic companion's voice. He sympathized with him. It seemed no matter where he turned, there were always injustices. The woman he saved that night...he wasn't sure if she got lucky or not, but others...some of them had no chances.

It was evening by the time they got back. With a push, the door to the café opened, accompanied with a small jingle as they walked in.

"To think...it'd taken us all day to get back. Can you believe that? Once you think the traffic gets going again, it stops just like that," Sakura-san complained, removing his fedora.

Ren turned around to face the older man, and he subconsciously brought his hands up to play with one of the curls of his hair. A small tick he'd developed when he was nervous or idle. "I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused you."

Despite his apology, his guardian only seemed to look at him with scrutiny.

"...Whatever. You have the rest of the night to yourself, so do whatever you want. Except for messing up the store. And if I notice even a single coffee bean missing, I swear I'll—"

 _Ring riing_.

The older man sighed, cooling his frustration before answering the phone.

"Hello?...Yeah...I'll be heading off...alright, I'll be there soon."

_Click._

"I'm heading off now. Remember what I said."

With that, the older man left, the jingle of the bell by the door ringing once again.

"First day of school tomorrow huh...," Ren said to the empty café, before heading up the stairs and changing into new sleepwear.

When he got into bed, he hovered his phone above his face and checked the time.

10:05.

He should sleep now. School tomorrow, and with that subway train derailed, he suspected that the trains would be running late.

Despite that fact, he couldn't help but scroll through his phone before sleeping. It was a routine that developed long long ago. Hopefully there wouldn't be anything distracting this time around. The last time that happened, he ended up staying up until three in the morning. Internet rabbit holes were a curious thing…

After scrolling through his recent emails, he closed the app and back to his phone's home screen.

' _Huh…?'_

That...that app was back. That creepy red icon with the eye stared back at him.

' _I thought I deleted that…'_ he thought, repeating the procedure from earlier today to delete the app.

He sighed upon doing the deed and he allowed his phone to drop onto his chest, resting the arm that held his phone over his eyes.

Hopefully, the first day of school will meet his expectations.

Ren walked down the stairs groggily, fixing his glasses and trying to tame his natural bedhead in the process.

"Ah, you're awake," came a familiar voice that seemed to be a bit more tame than the usual tone that Ren often associated this voice with.

He rubbed his eyes as he came face to face with the owner of the voice. There, behind the counter was Sojiro in his usual work outfit. A pink button-up and a black striped apron. And in front of him was...curry? And milk?

"Come, have a seat and eat before you leave," Sojiro said, gesturing to the food before him.

He must still be half asleep. Was Sakura-san...being nice to him? No...no that can't be it. He must still be dreaming.

"Are you just gonna stand there and waste my good will? I hate wasting food you know," Sakura-san added, as if sensing Ren's disbelief.

After failing to process his altruism, Ren simply nodded and walked to the counter, taking a seat in front of the food.

"Thanks for the food," Ren sighed tiredly, as he absentmindedly picked up his spoon.

"Just make sure to finish it before the customers come in," he heard Sakura-san say before leaving him alone to his breakfast.

Lifting the spoon of curry and rice, he brought it to his mouth and…

He was wide awake.

' _Holy shit...this is good,'_ Ren exclaimed mentally, as he savored the magical burst of flavor that coated his taste buds. Hastily, he took another spoonful of the wonderful dish and before he knew it, the plate was empty.

The sound of the spoon scraping the plate disappointed him.

"Glad you liked it. Now it's time for you to go," Sakura-san said, reappearing in front of him and picking up Ren's dirty dishes.

Ren checked his phone, and upon seeing the time, he had to agree.

7:05.

If he wanted to make it to school, he would have to leave now.

Hoisting his bag over his shoulder, he began to head out the door, but not before hearing Sakura-san call out, "Do me a favor and flip the sign to open!"

Without delay, Ren flipped the sign, but remained at the door.

"Thanks...for feeding me," Ren said, as he headed out. He almost didn't hear his guardian's chuckle and the sentence that came after it.

"Turns out you do have manners after all."

A small smile graced Ren's face as he walked down the alleyway and to the train station.

Cafe Leblanc was now open.

" _Now arriving, Chiba."_

He finally made it. After a harrowing maze that was Tokyo's train station, as well as a few transfer lines, he finally made it.

People spilled out of the train like a dam that had just broken, one Ren Amamiya included. Heading up the staircase and back to the overworld, he was greeted with...rain? Heavy rain at that.

Shit, he didn't bring an umbrella.

He eyed the nearest building, which had an overhead tarp sticking out. Something to take cover from the rain for a bit, though he wasn't sure how long he'd be able to wait there for.

Lifting his bag over his head, he ran for the building as fast as possible. Once he was underneath the tarp, he lowered his bag and stared off the distance, identifying one of Sobu's towers. It was still a ways away.

He pulled out his phone to check the time.

7:50.

' _And how much further do I need to go?'_

Sliding the screen to unlock, he came face to face with that...icon again, smack dab in the middle of a preview of his GPS app.

He frowned. This was the third time that—

Suddenly, the app grew in size, taking up nearly the whole screen. Did he accidentally open it? He hoped not. He didn't know what this app was or why it kept on coming back. For all he knew, it might be a virus.

Yep. He decided, his next phone was going to be an iPhone.

Just as he was about to close out of the app, he heard the rapid sound of footsteps that seemed to be approaching him quickly, and he looked up at the source.

It was a girl, with light orange hair tied into a loose side bun and reddish eyes. She was wearing the same jacket that he was. A Sobu student as well, no doubt, though her uniform seemed a bit...unkempt.

"Gaaaahaaaa…" she huffed as she took the spot next to him. She stood back up, recomposing herself after losing her breath. "Mouuu, I forgot an umbrella. I didn't know it was gonna rain…"

Ren lowered his phone and he couldn't help but stare. Without a doubt, he could say that she was really attractive.

As if sensing his eyes on her, she turned to face him.

"Oh! Yahallo," she greeted cheerfully, to which Ren could only raise an eyebrow.

Yahallo? That's a new one, if not a bit silly. Was she trying to start a trend?

"Hello there," he responded, giving a small nod in her direction. And with that, a silence draped over them as they watched the rain continue to pour.

From a side glance, he could see that she was searching for something.

"Where is...ah!"

Just then, a white sedan pulled up to the curb and the window rolled down, revealing a man's face. It was blocky, with an over pronounced chin.

Where had he seen that face before…?

"Good morning!" He called out to the two, though he was most likely talking to the girl beside him. "I'm still offering that ride, Yuigahama-san!"

"Yeah! I'll take it Kamoshida-sensei!" She responded back in kind, before hesitantly shifting her gaze over to Ren. "W-Would you…"

Ahh, now he remembered. His picture was in the glass case in the reception room.

"Hey kid! Do you need a ride too?" Kamoshida-sensei called out to him as well. That was most likely what Yuigahama wanted to ask.

Ren shook his head at the offer. If he was to be taking the train starting today, he would need to remember the path to school.

"Thank you though."

He watched Yuigahama get into the passenger seat, before watching them drive off.

"Hey waaaaait!" came another voice, along with another set of rapid footsteps.

This time, it was a guy with short blonde hair. His uniform was even more so unkept than Yuigahama's, sporting a wrinkled jacket and a loud yellow graphic tee that, no doubt, broke Sobu's uniform guidelines.

"Damn it! Freakin' perv! I was too late...," The boy huffed in frustration.

"Perv…?" Ren parroted without realizing, and the boy's attention quickly shifted over to him.

"Yeah...I said what I said," the boy replied, taking intimidating steps towards Ren. "Planning on ratting me out to Kamoshida?"

Ren remained passive at the boy's advance, focusing instead on his words. Was there some reason for him to be reacting that way? He knew who Kamoshida was, now that Yuigahama confirmed it, but confirming the man's identity seemed to bring trouble. And that would have meant breaking his rule of "living an honest student's life".

So with that in mind…

"Was that the teacher there?" Ren asked innocently, and the boy who took more steps towards him faltered.

"I—uh...yeah? You don't know who Kamoshida is?" The boy asked, with a facial expression that also asked, 'Have you been living under a rock?'

"I'm the transfer student," Ren clarified, earning a surprised look from the vulgar blonde.

"No way...so you're _that_ transfer student?"

Ren raised an eyebrow at his words, but kept his mouth shut. What did he mean by ' _that_ transfer student'?

The blonde haired boy shook his head, "Anyways, that guy in the car just now was Kamoshida. He always acts like he's the king of the castle, getting away with what he wants."

Ren had no response to that, and an awkward silence engulfed the two.

He noticed that the pounding of the rain on the tarp became softer.

"So uh," the boy started "Forgot my manners. I'm Ryuji Sakamoto."

He held out his hand.

Ren looked at Sakamoto's hand before clasping it, completing the handshake. 

"Ren Amamiya."

"Well, Ren? Think we should go, the rain's letting up," Sakamoto said, releasing Ren's hand.

But before they walked off, Ren felt a heavy pressure building up in his head like a migraine that caused him to keel over slightly.

Ren clutched his head instinctively and saw that Sakamoto was also keeling over.

"Damn...my head…," Ren heard him mutter before standing up straight and walking off.

' _What a coincidence,'_ Ren thought as he checked his phone for the time.

7:15.

Sliding his phone to unlock, he was led straight to the GPS. The red icon was nowhere to be found.

The GPS showed that the direction that the boy was walking in was the right path to the school, and so he followed him.

They passed through tight spaces and suspicious alleyways, sometimes thinking that he was going to get mugged on the way to school. Why did the GPS take this path?

Before they knew it, they finally reached the front of the school. Or so...it was supposed to be.

Ren and his companion stared up at the giant building.

"What…"

"...the hell…?" Sakamoto finished. "This isn't right, this is where Sobu's supposed to be!"

Ren checked the GPS on his phone. The vulgar blonde haired boy was right. The blue dot on his GPS indicated that they were at Sobu…

So why was it that, instead of Sobu, they were peering up at a castle that should have been seen from miles away?

' _Yet another long day of work.'_

Shizuka yawned as she watched the classroom fill in with students. Some were still chatting, carrying their morning conversation through the room as they headed to their seats, while others immediately headed to their desks and pulled out their notebooks.

She kept an eye out for a certain bedhead with glasses. She instructed for him to meet at the faculty room, but to no avail. He didn't show. Maybe he just didn't know where the faculty room was. She should have waited there a bit longer. Hopefully, he would manage to find his way to class.

She kept glancing at the clock from time to time.

8:03.

Ren Amamiya has yet to arrive.

Another few minutes passed by and the bell signaling that classes had begun finally rang. He was late. But she wasn't going to hold up class for him.

' _Maybe he's lost,'_ she thought optimistically. It was fine, it happens. When he comes in, she'll just have to introduce him and then catch him up to speed.

"Okay class," she called out, earning everyone's attention, "Today's lesson will be about…"

And she went through the lesson plan for today. Minutes passed by, and so too did the hours. Eventually, the bell rang again, indicating that the lunch break was going to begin.

Ren Amamiya never arrived.

Lunch passed, and soon, it was the end of the day.

As she watched the last student exit the classroom, she sighed. A few minutes late, sure, but he was nowhere to be seen on the first day of class. Inexcusable. She thought he wanted, in his words, "an honest student's life".

Then, she heard it. Fangirl squealing, failed attempts at muttering, and an obnoxious voice greeting everyone. She groaned, slumping into her desk. She knew exactly who that was.

The door to her classroom slid open, followed by the obnoxious voice, "Hey, Hiratsuka."

"Hello...Kamoshida," she greeted unenthusiastically, as she gazed at him leaning against the doorframe.

She hated this man. He stood for everything she was against. His cheerful and upbeat mask was what drew the students in, but deep down, she knew he was a monster. He bullied his boys' tennis team, and condescendingly berated any student that left a...stain on their prestigious school.

She'd even heard the rumors too, about how he abused both the boys' and girls' team, if Sakamoto's 'accident' was anything to go by.

"What's up with that greeting?" he asked, laughing cheerfully. Oh how she wanted to punch that face into a proper shape.

She sighed. "Nothing, it's been a long day, and the new student hasn't shown up yet."

"Oh!" Kamoshida exclaimed, as if remembering something, "Did you hear? We got a call from the police. Turns out he was doing drugs with Sakamoto."

Her eyes widened, quickly standing up from her desk. "Where are they now?"

"Last I saw, they just now got to the entrance. You know, I feel bad that they sicked him onto you. I could whip him into proper shape myself, you know," Kamoshida replied coolly.

"I don't feel bad at all. It's my job as a counselor to watch over these kids, not that you'd understand," she replied harshly. "Now if you'll excuse me."

With a hastened step, she pushed past Kamoshida and exited the room. She heard Kamoshida's words as she passed by him.

"Hey! Maybe I can take—"

"No chance in hell, Kamoshida!" She replied back, shuddering at the unfinished sentence, as she made her way to the entrance.

Kobayakawa's promise to her was going to go down the drain on his first day.

Have you ever had those dreams that mirrored reality with near-perfection? Like, for example, you convince yourself that you were going to call off work the next morning, and you dream that you do, but then you wake up and realize that it was just a dream?

Those dreams were...interesting, to say the least. When a dream ends up bordering reality, then you wake up, and you are thrust back into the real reality, and you're left confused.

That must have been what that was. A dream that bordered reality. Executing itself so well, he couldn't remember when the dream transitioned from near-reality to pure fiction.

It explained a lot, really. Why Sojiro was so...amicable. Why that app kept on coming back, despite deleting it twice.

A groan filled his ears, prompting him to wake up, though not without a sense of urgency. For that groan did not come from him.

Ren's eyes snapped open and he jolted upwards, clutching his head in the process. His body hurts. His head hurts. Everything hurts.

"Duuuude...you good there?" Sakamoto asked, snapping him out of his daze. Ren blinked as the room before him finally processed into his mind.

Before him was not the familiar attic of Leblanc. Instead, it was a dimly lit jail cell, with various shackles and...instruments that hung from the wall. Barrels littered the room making it seem more crowded.

So...this wasn't a dream.

"Nope, it's not, I thought it was too," the boy replied. Ren blinked again. He hadn't realized he'd said that out loud.

Sakamoto's previous question finally caught up to Ren's mind and he responded, "Aside from everything hurting, yeah. You?"

"Yeah, more or less. But...arghhh! What's goin' on?!" Sakamoto asked in frustration, walking off within the cell, though Ren paid no mind. He was busy massaging his aching head.

He heard an aggressive heavy pounding coming from the other end of the cell along with shouting.

"Hey! Let us out already! I know that there's someone there!"

After a few more seconds of pounding, Sakamoto returned.

"Damn it! Where are we?! Is this some kind of movie set?!" He asked. Ren could sense the panic seeping into his voice.

"Doesn't seem like it, but—"

Then they heard it. A painful blood curdling scream that echoed into the room.

"Th-the hell was that just now?"

"Let's go, come on!" Ren replied urgently, and the two ran to the cell bars, hoping to catch a glimpse of the source of the screaming.

Ren strained his ears to keep listening through the atrocious screaming. And he was right to. Beneath the yelling, he heard a spurting, like in the movies where someone gets impaled and accompanied by the sound of blood gushing out of the open wound.

"No...no, no, no…"

Ren's companion must have heard it too, because he released his hold on the bars and took a few steps back. Terror was etched onto his face, and Ren could notice the sound of fast, shallow breathing.

"You're shitting me, there's no way this can be happening right now…"

Ren knew how he felt. In fact, he was sure he was feeling the same way. But if he started panicking too, things would get much worse. He hoped that Sakamoto didn't see through his façade.

"Hey!" He placed his hands on the blonde's shoulders, and shook him lightly, "We gotta stay calm and get out of here. Panicking will only make things worse."

He was surprised by his own level-headedness. Perhaps to the point where even he believed it, though he couldn't stop the slight trembling in his hands.

Fortunately, his companion seemed to buy it, and he took deep breathes to calm his own breathing.

"Yeah, yeah...you're right. Sorry 'bout that…" he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

Ren nodded in acknowledgement before inspecting one of the barrels. Nothing inside. It would be perfect. "The barrels...think we can hide in here?"

"Let's try it."

As he was about to lift the lid off the barrel, he heard multiple footsteps echoing from the outside that got closer to their cell.

"Shit, no time…"

Whether it was he who said it or his companion, he didn't know. What he did know, was that a group of knights, the same ones that cornered them and took them down, appeared.

"Be glad that your time of reckoning has come. The bell of evening tolls thy name," one of the knights said, as they approached the jail cell.

Ren glared into the eyes of the blue mask the knight wore. They were helpless, but that didn't mean they were going to go down without a fight.

Then, a familiar voice joined in. Despite hearing it briefly once, Ren knew who it belonged to.

"No one's allowed to do as they please in my castle."

Kamoshida-sensei, or rather, Kamoshida stood over them, glaring down at them with unnaturally golden eyes and a wretched smile. Instead of any semblance of work attire, he wore a red velvety cloak that draped around his body. The opening of the cloak...well...Ren wanted to bleach his eyes. For in the cloak, all Kamoshida wore was a speedo.

"I thought it was some petty thief, but it turns out, it's just you Sakamoto," Kamoshida said, eyeing the blonde before shifting his gaze to him. "And you...the criminal transfer student."

Ren locked his glare onto the taller man. How did he know?

"What the hell are you playing at, you asshole?" Sakamoto asked aggressively clutching onto the bars.

"Is that how you speak to a king?!" Kamoshida snarled back, obviously upset by the disrespect that Sakamoto just showed. "It's time for your execution! Take them out!"

At Kamoshida's command, the knights charged in, busting the cell door wide open and flinging the two students onto their backs.

"Agh!" They shouted in surprise, as the knights marched in. They focused on Sakamoto, however, as one of them kicked him in the stomach to roll him over, eliciting another yelp of pain.

With their attention currently focused on the blond, Ren shakily stood up and lunged forward, roping his arms around the knight and attempting to halt its advance.

"Don't do it...just go!" Ren heard him yell, but ignored his plea. No way in hell was he about to just...abandon this guy.

Ren locked his arms harder, but it seemed little to deter the knight.

"Just...shut up...Sakamoto…!" Ren replied through gritted teeth, feeling his heels dragging against the stone floor as the knight went in for a kick.

"Pathetic. You can't even save your friend," he heard Kamoshida taunt from the side. Ren glanced over to the man, who seemed to be entertained by the scene before him.

Ren grit his teeth harder. Kamoshida was right, and he could feel his strength waning. His arms began loosening, and before he knew it, he felt a blunt pain coming from his cheek as he fell to the floor.

Ren struggled to get up, but stopped when he felt the sharp pointiness of a sword a hairwidth away from his forehead.

"Ahh there we go, now I can focus on this one," Kamoshida said. Ren watched him grab Sakamoto by the collar of his shirt and lifted him, slamming him onto the walls. What followed next was a flurry of flesh hitting flesh, as Kamoshida pounded and kicked into Sakamoto's torso before spitting on Sakamoto's badly beaten body.

"Piece of shit like you doesn't deserve anymore of my energy. I'll just kill you right now!"

With that, the guards that kept Ren hostage left his proximity, and he saw a knight hand Kamoshida its sword. The guards huddled around Sakamoto, stepping on his limbs to prevent any resistance of escape.

Shakily, Ren tried to get up, but with no avail. Was he so helpless to allow another injustice occur again?

Kamoshida lifted the blade up into the air. The blade gleamed like a taunt, telling him to try to stop what was about to occur.

"No...Stop it!" Ren yelled, as the blade swung down before halting inches away from Sakamoto's neck.

"Well well...looks like this little ant thinks he can stop the boot," Kamoshida said prying his eyes away from Sakamoto and towards Ren.

He hoped that Kamoshida could see the defiance in his eyes. "I think I've decided. Killing you in front of Sakamoto before I killed him would be so much more entertaining than just killing him and then you."

With a snap of his fingers, Ren found himself pinned against the wall harshly, letting out a gasp of pain.

He flailed helplessly, as Kamoshida approached him, lifting the blade upwards. Only seconds left until his demise. But...he wasn't scared. He kept his defiant eyes on the muscular man.

"That look on your eyes are irritating me!" Kamoshida shouted, before swinging the blade downwards. However, midswing, time seemed to slow before it came to a halt.

Everything dimmed like a cutscene displacing all those deemed unimportant, save for himself.

Out of the corners of his eyes, he saw a soft blue glow that was easy to the eyes. Despite it being so close, it wasn't blinding.

The light floated before him, and in its luminescence, he could make out the figure of a butterfly. It remained there, as if it were staring at him.

"Truly...this is an unjust game. The cards have been shuffled, Trickster, and all that was meant to be is no longer so. But if you can hear my voice, then there is still a chance…," came a soft voice.

Was...was that butterfly talking?

"The bonds you were meant to form have changed, but if you wish to play with the new cards you were dealt, then let us fight. Fight...until the end."

With those final words, the butterfly disappeared, but the dimness did not go along with it.

"What's the matter?" Came a new, gruff voice. "Will you allow this game to end before it even begins? Death awaits you both if you do nothing. Was your previous decision a mistake...then?"

Ren grit his teeth, instantaneous flashbacks of that night occurring to him. A woman, harassed by a man. Saving the woman. A bleeding head. Being blamed.

' _No...no it wasn't,'_ he thought confidently.

Then, as if the voice read his mind (which it most likely did), it asked, "Then…?"

"Let me...fight!" Ren shouted in determination into the stilled void.

"Very well...let the battles begin," the voice chuckled before fading out into silence, but still, he hadn't left the time standstill.

Suddenly he felt a throbbing, at first from his head before slowly encompassing his body, and then came an explosive pain that shook him. He gasped in pain as the throbbing continued, and before he knew it, he was thrashing wildly. The rational part of him was wary of the blade that was near his face. The rest of him screamed in pain, wishing for it to cease.

"Vow to me…," the gruff voice from a few seconds ago returned, "I am thou...thou art I. Thou who art willing to perform sacrilegious acts for thine own justice! Call upon my name! Release thy rage!"

"Arghhhhhhhhhhhh!" Ren released a built up yell of pain, no longer allowing himself to mute his suffering.

"It hurts, but thou must prove thyself. Show me thine strength and will to continue! Even if thou art chained to Hell itself!"

And just like that...it stopped. The pain subsided. The voice ceased. And time continued.

' _Shit!'_ Ren realized at what point that interlude occurred, and he watched the blade swing closer and closer, as he felt energy swell up inside him.

As the blade was about to make contact, Ren braced himself for the impact, but it didn't come. The energy that he felt within him burst open, and with something akin to an Almighty Push, everyone flew backwards.

He felt a weight on his upper face that wasn't there before, like something was constricting him, and instinctively he brought his hands up to pull it off.

' _A mask…?'_ He thought as he felt the hard plastic against his finger tips.

_Get it off. Get it off!_

Those words rang deep into him as he tried to pull it, meeting a heavy resistance like it was part of his skin. And it damn near should have been, based on the fact that, when he finally managed to pry it off, it hurt like hell. He let out a scream pain as he gripped the mask in his hands.

The next feeling he felt was a warm liquid rolling down his face. The slight scent that filled his proximity told him exactly what it was. Blood.

But the release of the mask and the feeling of blood dripping down his face...did not panic him. Rather, it left him in a state of serenity, as if whatever chains that shackled him were released. He felt...free.

Blue flames bursted around him before engulfing him, but he felt no heat. No burning sensation. It was a warm and tingly feeling.

He recognized these flames immediately. They were the same flames from that dream.

"Heh…," Ren smirked as the flames died out, and he felt a presence behind him. An uncharacteristically cold and merciless smile graced his face as he stared down at the man who had been taunting him and beating his companion.

"I am the pillager of Twilight! Arsène!" the voice from before spoke, as the presence from behind him shifted to his front, revealing its form to Ren.

Arsène was a humanoid figure with thin and pointy limbs and ravenous black wings, donning a red suit and black top hat.

Arsène glanced back to him, his face permanently etched into a devilish smile with equally devilish eyes, with horns protruding upwards. Truly, it looked like a devil was unleashed.

"Shall we?" Arsène asked, though his mouth did not move. Ren suspected that his 'face' was more like a mask.

"We shall," Ren responded with a merciless tone.

"Hmph. Very well."

"Who the hell are you?!" Kamoshida's voice shouted, as the pair turned their attention to the man who was now up on his feet. "Guards!"

Two guards heeded their king's call as they rose up before melting into a black liquid, instead replaced by...floating pumpkins wearing a cape? In their hands were an ominous glowing lantern.

They were more terrifying as knights, if Ren were to be honest. But regardless, that did not deter him. For he now had the power to end this farce.

"Jack-O-Lanterns. Think you can handle this?" Arsène asked, floating on standby.

"Is that even a question that needs to be asked?" Ren quipped back.

"This power of mine is yours! Kill them however you want! Run wild with your heart's content!" Arsène shouted encouragingly, spreading his wings intimidatingly.

"With pleasure!" Ren replied, pointing a finger at one of the Jack-O-Lanterns. Despite this being his first time, the words that came out of his mouth next came like second nature. "Arsène! Eiha!"

Arsène flapped his wings, and in the area Ren pointed at, a small red and black beam bursted upwards consuming the little creature, as a pained yelp escaped its mouth(?). Once the blackened energy disappeared, nothing remained of the little Jack-O-Lantern.

"Not bad," Arsène said casually. "Why don't you try that thing by your waist this time?"

Following Arsène's suggestion, he felt his waist and found a relatively heavy weight holstered to his hip. His hands grasped what seemed to be a handle and pulled out.

"A knife…? Since when…?"

In his hands was a sleek black dagger. It was simple, in design, with a single sided blade and a small guard connecting the hilt and the blade.

"That is your weapon manifested from your rebellious soul! Let's do some work!" Arsène responded.

With that, Ren leaped forward with a speed that would put even the fastest track star to shame. Midleap, he twirled the blade flashily before landing a slash on the final Jack-O-Lantern.

"N-no…," it whimpered, before disintegrating into nothingness.

Hearing those words, Ren paused and stared at the once occupied spot. Did he just...kill someone? Or something?

"Arsè—," he turned around to ask his companion, but the red suited devil disappeared. Did Arsène just leave? Or…?

"What...the hell was that just now?" He heard Sakamoto ask hesitantly, pulling him out of his thoughts. He turned to look at the blond boy, who looked a lot worse for wear.

"I…," Ren wasn't sure. Even he was still trying to comprehend what just happened. One moment he was about to meet his demise, and then the next he fought back like a protagonist in a video game that just unlocked his true power.

"How dare you!" Kamoshida shouted, a gleaming blade in the air ready to strike.

' _Shit!'_

It was too late for Ren to react.

"Oh no you don't!" Sakamoto shouted as he shoved the man onto the ground, the blade prattling against the floor as it skidded away.

The two looked at each other with a smirk.

"Let's get out of here...Ryuji."

"Hells yeah!"

—

Ren found himself in the faculty room with Hiratsuka-sensei. The room where he was supposed to meet her before class started. At least half of her instructions were completed.

"So tell me why, Amamiya, we got a call from the police about you doing drugs?" Hiratsuka-sensei asked irately, glaring at Ren.

Wait, hold on.

"Drugs?" Ren asked quizzically, an eyebrow raising past his glasses frame.

She sighed harshly, "I'm not in the mood for games, Amamiya. We got a call. From the police. About you and Sakamoto doing drugs. On top of that..." She waved her hands in the air, emphasizing his face, "What happened to your face?!"

What…? He would never. Never in a million years. Unless…

" _Show me what's in the bag. There better not be any drugs," the policeman warned_.

Ren couldn't help but sigh as well. "Hiratsuka-sensei, Sakamoto-san and I never did any drugs. We, uh…got jumped. By thugs."

Though she stared back with a deadpan, like she didn't believe him. Why wouldn't she though? He had the bruises on his face to prove it...

"You threw my protection down the drain, you know?! Principal Kobayakawa allowed me one chance to correct you, and you blew it on the first day! It's like you had one phoenix down left, and you just used it!" his teacher exclaimed loudly, earning looks from other other faculty members nearby.

Well, when she put it like that…

"I...Yes, I know. I'm sorry," Ren replied simply, but that only earned him a sigh.

"Amamiya, you know what this probation means right? It's not even your first day and not _only_ did you skip the first half of the day, you also got into a fight! Those bruises on your face aren't helping your case you know?! And, before I go any further, are you okay?"

Ren blinked. So she did buy the story. This was...well, Ren didn't know if it was a good thing or not.

"Yeah, didn't get roughed up too badly," he replied, before smirking. "I made quick work of them, though."

Another irritated sigh. "That's what I mean. I thought you wanted an honest student's life?"

"I—"

But she wasn't done, as she continued speaking, "On top of that, they said you came in with Sakamoto. I…" Her brows furrowed, as if she felt conflicted about what she was going to say next. "I...Ahem. If you want your probation to go as smoothly as possible, I recommend you keep in mind about who you'll be hanging out with."

Ren remained silent. He knew what she was trying to say.

_Be careful of Sakamoto._

He saw how he acted and reacted. Though, if it weren't for his brash attitude, he wouldn't have gotten out alive. Even with Arsène.

"I don't like what you're insinuating about Ryuji," Ren replied sharply. No one was going to talk shit about his friends on his watch.

"D-don't get me wrong. I love the kid, I do, but it's just...he hasn't been doing very good lately. He has a high temper. He says stuff without thinking. I'm responsible for him too, you know. Matter of fact, as a guidance counselor, I have quite a few students I gotta keep my eye on."

Ren's eyes softened lightly before returning to its impassive look. "I see..."

Then, he saw it. A sudden look of realization before a mischievous glint in her eyes appeared, like he was the final piece in her grand plan.

"I have an idea. Come with me," Hiratsuka-sensei said, standing from her office chair.

"Uh...sure," Ren replied, and the two exited the faculty room.

As they traversed through the halls, Ren and Hiratsuka-sensei received a vast amount of stares from the students found in the halls. That was easy to ignore, though some students seemed to look as if they were passing around gossip. That made him a bit uneasy, especially when some of the words spoken escaped the confines of a cupped hand and into the open air.

"That's the transfer student? He doesn't _look_ dangerous…"

"Not now, but watch, when he gets mad, he'll probably pull a knife on you."

"I heard he got initiated into the yakuza."

"Oh shit, is he looking this way? I hope he doesn't kill me later…"

"Look at those bruises! I bet someone took a stand against him, but got beaten down."

Ren shut his eyes harshly, though it had little effect on venting his frustrations and even less of an effect blocking the gossip.

"Hey!" He heard his sensei shout, and he snapped his eyes open. "That's enough! Any more words out of anyone and you'll be going straight to the faculty room!"

That seemed to shut them up...for now.

"Sorry, I have no idea how they learned of that, and you just got here…" she murmured, but all Ren could do was sigh. There went any semblance of trying to keep it normal.

"Thanks, though."

The two exited the building and into a smaller building nearby. They traversed the hallways of the building before finally coming to a stop in a room.

"This is our stop," Hiratsuka-sensei said, sliding the door open and walking in.

Ren followed in after her, and saw that the room was relatively empty. Desks and chairs were stacked against the walls, indicating that the classroom didn't have any practical use. Though Ren did feel the afternoon wind, which felt nice now, thanks to the skies clearing. But that one thing: The window was open, and unless the school has a habit of leaving the windows open in any unused class, that meant...Ah.

In the middle of the room, sat a girl seated on a chair, engrossed in a book. She was slender in frame, with long black hair and red ribbons tied to them. She looked elegant, to say the least.

As if she sensed his eyes on her, she looked up from her book and at them.

"Hiratsuka-sensei?" she asked, her voice was soft, yet sharp. "I thought I told you to knock before entering."

"Yeaah," his teacher replied, taking further steps into the room, "but you never respond, even when I do knock."

"That's because you come in before I have a chance to respond," the girl said, before fixing her eyes upon Ren. He couldn't help but stiffen.

"Blue eyes, huh…?" Ren found himself muttering, his thoughts escaping from his lips.

"Who's the thug?" She asked, quirking her eyebrows.

"Ren Amamiya. And I'm not a thug," he replied, irked at her descriptive, but keeping a passive face etched on.

"I see. The state of your face says otherwise," she replied, before returning her attention to Hiratsuka-sensei, who was leaning against the wall, "So why did you bring him here?"

"Well you see…," she jerked her thumb to Ren, "he wants to join your club!"

Ren looked at his teacher in shock. Was this what she had planned this entire time?!

"Don't give me that look. I was hoping it'd at least be a month or two before I used up Principal Kobayakawa's promise," Hiratsuka replied.

"I...Really? Two months at most?" he asked in a deadpan voice. Where was her faith in him?

"Hey! I should be disappointed in you too, you know?! Two months?! Try on the first day!" She fired back.

Yeah...that was fair. Ren sighed, reaching a hand up to tug on his hair.

"So as you can see, Yukinoshita. He wants his probation to go as smoothly as possible. And what better way of doing that than joining a club?" Hiratsuka asked the girl, now known as Yukinoshita.

"I...I suppose," Yukinoshita replied tiredly, having no energy to respond, most likely due to Hiratsuka's loud nature. "But—"

Yukinoshita was interrupted when the door slid open aggressively and an out-of-breath Ryuji tumbled in.

"Dude! There you are! I was...looking everywhere...for you…!" He huffed, looking at Ren, before realizing that there were other people in the room, "Oh...hey Hiratsuka-sensei. Yukinoshita-san."

Hiratsuka watched the scene unfold with a mild interest, while Yukinoshita seemed to be glaring daggers at him.

"Ryuji," Ren greeted simply, before sending him a curious look. "How'd...you find me?"

After they reached the entrance of the school, they parted ways but not before saying that they would meet up in front of the school. But then Hiratsuka-sensei had to go and drag him all the way here.

"Awww you know, after I got chewed out from my teacher, I waited for like ten minutes at our meet up spot, and then I got bored," Ryuji replied, plopping down onto the floor to rest, "Turns out that you're really popular. You know, being the delinquent transfer student and all."

"Delinquent...transfer student?" Yukinoshita asked cautiously, causing Ren to look back at her and sigh.

"Ryuji…" he muttered in slight irritation, though he was surprised Yukinoshita hadn't heard about his...standing yet, given that nearly everyone else had.

"Huh? Were people not supposed to know about that? It seemed like everyone already did...my bad, ahaha," Ryuji muttered apologetically, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"Sakamoto, what are you doing?" Hiratsuka-sensei asked incredulously, her gaze flickering to Ren momentarily. Remember what she said…

"Uhh...Me and...uh...Ren, here," Ren felt Sakamotos hands clasp his shoulders, "Were gonna look for...pastries! There was a good pastry shop that we passed by and—"

Oh boy. Ren pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Change of plans, Ryuji, I'm...uh...kinda busy right now."

"Oh...with what?" He asked curiously.

"This is too noisy," Yukinoshita said, snapping her book shut. "Hiratsuka-sensei, please detain the two individuals that trespassed upon this room. I fear their ruckus will taint the serenity of this place, and I'll have to go looking around for a new room."

"Uhh...what?" Sakamoto asked. Clearly Yukinoshita's tongue-lashing shot past his head (luckily?).

"She's saying you're too loud," Ren replied simplistically, before frowning in her direction. "Wait, I was brought here though. And aren't I part of this club now?"

"Oh? I clearly don't remember saying that you were allowed to join," Yukinoshita replied.

' _Okay...so this rose has thorns…'_ Ren thought mirthfully.

"I thought the hierarchy chain proves that Hiratsuka-sensei overrules your say?" He didn't know why, but he felt the urge to challenge her. Her prissy nature only seemed to tempt him further.

"Hiding behind the higher authorities to get what you want is such a delinquent move, Amamiya-san. Please come back when you find the ability to stand on your own two feet."

"Seems to me like you're the one hiding behind a higher authority if you need Hiratsuka-sensei to remove us," Ren took an intimidating step forward, and he saw her flinch, which unnerved him slightly. It seemed that the stigma of being a criminal still affected him, despite his willingness to stand against injustice even at the cost of his social standing.

He mumbled a soft, "Sorry" before stepping down.

"Hmmmm," he heard Hiratsuka-sensei hum in thought, and Ren turned to look at her. The contemplative look on her face gave him no doubt that she was scheming something again.

He was proven right a few seconds later, when she snapped her fingers, as she pushed herself off the wall.

"Congratulations, Yukinoshita! You have two new members for your club!"

"Eh…?"

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ren and Ryuji must return to the Palace to understand what is going on, but first...a request from a student?

The first day of school was terrible. The first day of club was even worse, bolstered by Yukinoshita's high-and-mighty attitude, which Ryuji didn't take too kindly to.

"Geeze! Who the hell does she think she is?!" Ryuji muttered in frustration, kicking his feet his feet harshly against the wooden floor as they exited the building.

Ren could only sigh in response, subconsciously looking around their environment for the girl in question. Speak of the devil and she shall come, after all.

He wasn't one to talk shit about people, though he could understand where his friend was coming from.

"We need to focus on the task at hand," Ren replied, dismissing Ryuji's question. "The castle? Or did you forget already?"

"Oh! Right!" Ryuji exclaimed, a sense of urgency filling his steps as he began to walk faster. "We gotta retrace our steps!"

As they exited the courtyard, Ren heard a familiar voice barely within reach of his hearing.

"Why did you let a student like him transfer here? He's already began associating with Sakamoto," came Kamoshida's voice.

Ren halted in his steps and out of the corners of his eyes, he saw two familiar figures laxly standing underneath one of the trees of the yard, oblivious to their surroundings.

"A delinquent student and one with an assault record no doubt. At this point, it'd be pointless with how much I contribute to the school," Kamoshida continued.

"Don't be like that, Kamoshida-san. You being here is already enough to bolster the school in a more positive light," Principal Kobayakawa replied in an attempt to soothe Kamoshida's ire before continuing, "Don't forget, it's what the PTO wants. I don't want it either, but they think that taking in that transfer student will increase their good standing. Personally...heh, we'll just have to see."

"Dude!" Ryuji called out, pulling Ren away from the conversation. He looked towards the blonde haired boy who was already by the gate.

He spared one last glance at the tree the two adults were at and they were gone.

He made his way to Ryuji and they headed back to the spot in which they first met. They retraced their steps back to the school.

"Wait wha…?" Ryuji stared dumbfounded at the building in front of them. It was still the same Sobu High School. No castle in sight.

Ren...didn't feel like putting energy into this. He was mentally exhausted. Awakening Arsène, wrapping his head around the fact that he met a humanoid cat, getting chewed out by Hiratsuka-sensei...the list went on. The hardest thing was meeting that not-cat. Well, that and playing peacekeeper between Yukinoshita and Ryuji.

He walked over to one of the posts and leaned against it.

"We need to talk about what happened first, before we jump back into whatever it is we got into," Ren said, hoping to slow Ryuji's tempo to give him a moment of rest.

And it worked when Ryuji took up the space beside him, taking a seat on the floor.

"Right. Just what did happen? I didn't think I'd experience an NSFW so soon…," Ryuji said.

NSFW…?

"You mean an NDE?" Ren asked mirthfully, the corner of his lip rising upwards slightly before returning to its neutral position.

"ND-wha…?" Ryuji asked in confusion before shaking his head, "Anyways, whatever, you get the point. Point is...we almost died!"

"Keep that down," Ren replied, watching as students passed them by. It seemed they got glances and whispers coming their way.

"Oh right, my bad," Ryuji said, before continuing in a...relatively softer voice, "But uh...even if we didn't know what happened, you saved me from Kamoshida. Thanks, Ren."

"It was nothing," Ren replied coolly, adjusting his glasses.

"Ha, look at you, acting all cool. You brought that other side of you out to play or sum'?"

Right... _that_ side of him. The one that was freed of all mental shackles. He honestly didn't know that he even had that side to himself. But...it sure felt nice to be able to dance and skirt around confidently.

He felt a finger twitch. Maybe he was itching to go back…?

"Anyways, you prolly don't know about it, but there are some rumors about Kamoshida," Ryuji said, causing Ren to look towards the boy.

' _Rumors…?'_ he wondered, waiting for Ryuji to continue with what he was saying.

"Nobody says anything against him 'cause he's some medalist that took the tennis team to the championship. The way he was actin' in that castle seemed like it showed his real side."

"And...the rumors…?" Ren asked expectantly.

"Ah well, I think he was brought on to make the school great again or whatever. But…," Ryuji shifted slightly, an action that did not go unnoticed, "I heard he also abuses his students. I-it could just be a rumor though! So…"

Ren furrowed his brow. He heard why the school had taken Kamoshida in, but if these rumors were anything to go by...why did they allow this man to run amok like this?

"I'm really pooped...I think we should tackle this tomorrow," Ryuji said, lifting himself off the ground and dusting his pants.

That was a great idea.

Ren lifted a fingertip to caress a bruise on his face, and he flinched slightly upon contact. What was he gonna do about these bruises…?

"Hey, so let's meet up here tomorrow after school," Ryuji said as he stretched.

"After club, you mean," Ren replied.

"Gah! Damn it! I forgot about that! Well...Yukinoshita wouldn't mind if I skipped _one_ day of club, right?"

Ren shook his head. "Don't think so. Hiratsuka-sensei, on the other hand…"

Ryuji trembled slightly at the mention of the elder woman's name, "R-right...uh...so we'll meet here after club."

"Deal," Ren pushed himself off the post, and they gave each other their goodbyes.

Ren began his walk back to the station, sighing as he looked back at the school. A brief flicker of an image transformed the school into Shujin before flickering back. He rubbed his eyes. He was tired, he was sure.

The walk back to the station was peaceful, for the most part, though he froze midstep as a realization hit him.

He was going to get chewed out later. He _knew_. His honest student life was not going as he expected.

* * *

Ren stared into the void that was Café Leblanc's windows, his hand resting on the door handle.

It looked warm and cozy inside. Homely, emphasized by the incandescent yellow lights that decorated the ceiling and the wooden furniture that tantalized its customers to stay for another cup of coffee.

Though Ren knew, when he entered through this establishment, it was going to be anything but. The windows were meant to peer into the soul, but the windows were deceptive. It was a trap card that was in play. The real danger was the man that waited at the counter.

Steeling his nerves, he opened the door slowly, trying to limit the sound of the jingle, though that attempt failed horribly.

"Where were you?" He heard Sakura-san's stern voice reach his ears and he flinched inwardly. This wasn't going to go well.

"I—"

"I got a call from the school. Ditched your first day _and_ you were doing drugs?!" His guardian's voice raised into a heated yell.

"I...no, there were no drugs." Ren was helpless in this situation, but that was all he could say. He was already seen as a criminal. Adding drug addict to that list was not on his itinerary.

"That's not the point, Amamiya! Just when I was thinking you had it together this morning. One wrong step and your life is over! You do know what probation means, right?! You're lucky you even had this second chance!"

"I do," Ren replied simply and quietly. Truly, he felt bad for ruining Sakura-san's impression this morning. Even when the man went so far as to feed him on good will. But what was he to do? He couldn't tell him _why_ he left.

_Riing riiiiing!_

Another phone call. Those were becoming awfully coincidental.

"Hey, what's up?" Sakura-san asked, turning away slightly as his voice became timid and soft, "Yeah, I'm just about to close up... Be there soon…Yeah, you too...Bye."

' _It's...really strange to see Sakura-san's soft side…,'_ Ren thought curiously.

Sakura-san pocketed his phone before turning a sharp gaze to Ren, his hard and stern voice returning again. "The hell are you still doing here? Go up to your room and go to bed already!"

Ren blinked, snapping out of his stupor before his feet began carrying him up the stairs. With his back turned, he heard the lights flicker off and the sound of a lock turning.

He changed out of his clothes and into nightwear, all the while thinking about today's events. Was this something to write about? Won't whomever read this...think he was crazy? Or bullshitting this report?

He stared at the little notebook in his hand. Maybe he was going to need a larger notebook than what was given to him.

But he'll cross that bridge when he got there.

He laid down in the comfort of his bed, releasing a sigh that relaxed his body, as he pulled out his phone.

"Kamoshida...Kamoshida…," he muttered to himself, as he opened up his phone's browser, typing in the teacher's name. A list of articles popped up, as well as a wikipedia on the man.

" _Olympics Medalist Wins Third Tennis Tournament In A Row."_

" _Sobu High Topples Shujin Academy's Five Year Win Streak in Tennis Tournament."_

" _Kamoshida Suguru to Become New PE Teacher at Sobu."_

' _Kamoshida...Kamoshida…,'_ Ren scrolled through pages of article headlines. This guy really was something, wasn't he? Strange how he hadn't heard of his name before…

Ren yawned, exiting out of his browser, locking his phone and dropping it onto his chest.

He had to get some rest. Tomorrow was going to be another long day.

* * *

Ren opened his eyes to a dim blue hue. Strange. He didn't remember changing out the colors of the lights. Wait...did he leave the lights on last night?

Pondering in his thoughts, he instinctively went to stretch out his arms...only to find that he couldn't.

He jerked himself upwards, the sound of chains clinging together accompanying his movement.

' _What…?'_ He stared at the room before him. Much like yesterday, he found himself within a cell, though this one seemed more like a conventional jail cell, what with the single bed and a sink right by the wall.

"About time you came to! Inmate!" A shrill, high pitched voice shouted, but Ren could only focus on one thing.

' _Inmate…?'_ Oh no. Don't tell him. They heard about him ditching school and doing drugs and now they decided to take him in his sleep.

"This...cannot be happening…" He hopped off the bed, his bare feet touching the cold stone floors of the cell as he made his way to the front of the cell.

"This is indeed happening," came another voice. This voice was identical to the loud one, though much softer and calm.

Outside the cell, stationed by the cell doors were two identical girls, wearing a navy blue warden's outfit. Though one wore an eye patch on the left of their eye and another wore it on the right side.

Ren's eyes widened. Oh! Oh...he was...here again. The Velvet Room...

"Our master wishes to speak with you," the girl with the soft voice spoke, Justine if he remembered correctly, redirected Ren's attention upwards.

He was staring into a circular room with an elongated table in the center, piled with books and papers. Igor, a hunch backed man in a black and white suit with an elongated crooked nose (that seemed almost phallic, though Ren wasn't going to admit he was thinking that) sat at the table by his lonesome. His fingers, which were equally long, tapped the surface of the table calmly.

"Welcome, Trickster. Might I congratulate us on a successful reunion," he spoke, his voice deep and soothing. It reminded him of one of those online tutors in Khan Academy.

"I see you've awakened to your powers. Your rehabilitation can finally begin."

"Rehabilitation?" Wasn't he in the process of being rehabilitated? Hiratsuka-sensei came to mind, though he wasn't sure if what she was doing counted as that.

"There's no need to understand it all right now. Just know that you have awakened your ability to use Persona. Take Arsène, for example, the one you heeded upon. Personas are a mask, an armor of the heart when confronting worldly matters."

Ren stared at the man silently. Then by prying off his mask, was he converting his 'armor' into power?

"There is no need to worry for this at the moment. You will learn in due time. There are other matters at the moment that must be brought up. You've noticed it, I'm sure. Somethings here aren't meant to be."

"...Yes," Ren replied. So there was a reason why he was seeing things change in front of his face, then. And that...castle that he saw…

"I cannot read your mind, but I can tell you...that castle you entered is not included. That Palace, is indeed a correct manifestation of the owner's will. It is the other ripples in reality that I am referring to. You were meant to attend Shujin Academy, were you not?"

Ren's eyes widened slightly. So he wasn't going mad. "I was."

"And yet, you have come to find that you are attending Sobu," The man chuckled deeply before continuing, "We shall dig deeper into this when you become more experienced. For now...I hope you appreciate the Metaverse Navigator. I've gifted it to you so that you may train in becoming a thief."

"Am I going to add another criminal record to my list?" Ren asked lightly, though it seemed the two wardens by his side didn't sense the humor in his voice.

_Bang!_

The sound of a baton smacking against the cell doors reverberated around the room, and Ren jumped back startled.

"Watch your tongue, inmate!" The loud one spoke, her hand outstretched.

"Worry not, Caroline. It seems our Trickster knows how to jest," The man said, waving away the hot-headed girl's strict nature. "I hope you make use of the Metaverse Navigator well, though I know it must be disheartening to use it alone. Should you find others, who you trust deeply to accompany you in such dangerous waters, I shall extend it to them too."

_Riiiiiiiiiiing!_

A mellow, haunting ring sounded through the air.

"Caroline, Justine, bid our Trickster a fine farewell."

Ren looked down at the two wardens by his cell, and the two girls spoke.

"Please devote your time to becoming an excellent thief."

"Hmph! Go and enjoy whatever rest you might have left."

With that, he felt like he was sinking through the floor, being thrown back into a black void.

* * *

Beautiful. Elegant. Quiet. Cold. Those were the words that often described Yukino Yukinoshita, and those were the words that she'd heard, in that order, as she grew up.

No doubt, being as beautiful as she, she was one for the center of gossip back in middle school and elementary. But those words held very little value to her, for they often came not from sincerity, but from the roots of jealousy.

Hence why the whispering and the talking occurring in the hallways were not something she dwelled on. Years of experience had taught her to ignore such shallow and thoughtless words.

Though this time, it seemed the rumor mill was working faster and harder than it usually did.

More students were huddled in groups of two or more, sparing glances to the center of the hallway.

' _How foolish. Do they not have anything better to do?'_ she wondered, as she made her way towards her sanctuary, a wrapped yakisoba-pan in hand. Well...the place that was her sanctuary. Now it was just a room full of festering testosterone.

As she was about to pass by one of the classrooms, the chattering of students she could hear through the classroom became louder, prompting her to stop before the door. The door slid open aggressively as students poured out of the class, carrying whatever conversation they were having with them.

Thankfully, she avoided being stampeded by the students that took no heed of others' well being, allowing for the wave of students to clear out before continuing onward.

"God! Can you believe that? I had to share a textbook with him today! I was so scared that he was going to kill me or something…"

"Ha! Karma's a bitch isn't it?"

The last student that filtered out shut the door behind them just as aggressively as it opened.

Just as she was about to continue her walk, she heard the door slide open once again and her vision was soon taken over by a head of messy black hair.

She recognized who this head belonged to, mostly because he was the one of the sources that tipped the testosterone-estrogen scale in _her_ clubroom yesterday.

Ren Amamiya, her more tolerable clubmate, began walking down the hall, and Yukino continued walking a distance behind him. Perhaps he was going to club today? Was he a masochist?

Strangely, she noticed the students in the halls quickly part from the center of the hall, huddling off into more groups on the side.

"Oh god, it's the delinquent transfer student…"

"He's the one with the criminal record, right?"

"Heard Sakamoto and him skipped the first day of class yesterday to do drugs…"

"I don't know why Sobu took in a guy like that, he's gonna be a stain on our school. I'm gonna be mad if I get rejected from my uni just because this guy is a student here..."

Though she was never one to pay attention to any school gossip, she couldn't help but overhear some of the...things the students were saying.

Was he not going to say anything back?

"Yukinoshita-senpai!" She heard a voice call out her name, freezing her in her tracks slightly before relaxing. It wasn't like she was tailing him anyways. They were just headed in the same direction.

She turned to see a girl she had never interacted with. Inwardly, she braced herself.

"Y-yes…?"

"You shouldn't be walking so close to that guy. He's the plague," the girl muttered quietly, though loud enough for Yukino to hear. She turned back to see Ren's back get smaller and smaller as he continued walking,

"I see. There's no need to worry about me. Please continue with what you were doing," she replied. The girl's worrisome face twisted into that of disgust.

"I was just trying to look out for you, but sure. You really are Sobu's Ice Queen."

Ah, there it was. The type of response she was waiting for.

Not wanting to give the girl any more of her time, Yukino turned and continued down the hall. Original destination. Her beloved...well...tainted clubroom.

Along the way, she spotted the familiar mop of hair that was Ren Amamiya, and just a bit further down was the monkey. Ryuji Sakamoto.

She saw Sakamoto wave towards Amamiya, and the raven haired boy responded back with a curt nod. They were probably going to be walking to club together.

And thus, her spontaneous not-trailing game was over. Her curiosity was quelled for now.

She passed by the two, hopefully without them noticing.

"So, we goin' to the—"

"Nope. Club."

The duo came upon her sights again, passing her slowly. Sure enough, Amamiya was…dragging Sakamoto by the ear?

"Ow ow ow ow! You don't gotta pull on my ear so hard!" Sakamoto exclaimed painfully, before comedically pausing his pain to greet her, "Oh, hey Yukinoshita. Ow, stop pulling damn it! I get it already!"

Yukino sighed. She was going to see these two rowdy folks at club.

And she was right, though what surprised her was that they beat her there, if the muffled talking didn't go by. She shouldn't have indulged herself with that yakisoba-pan on the way here.

"Duuuuude, do we really have to be here?"

"Yes, we do."

"Yeah but…! Morgana!"

"Morgana can wait. And wait 'til I tell him that you tried to use him as an excuse for getting out of something important."

"Gah! What?! That cat would kill me!"

' _Cat…?'_ Yukino thought, starry-eyed. It was a good thing that nobody could see her face right now.

Shaking herself out of her daze, she slid the door open, the hushed voices ceased immediately and the two...or rather, Sakamoto, tried to not look suspicious. Amamiya was leaning back into his chair, indulging himself in a book.

" _The Great Thief,"_ read the title of the book in a big, narrow red font. Interesting choice. She read that book once before.

"You're back. Are you two masochists?" She asked, auto-piloting to grab her seat, but realizing it was already pulled out for her.

"Hell no! If anything, this guy is the masochist for wanting to come back!" Sakamoto pointed at the reading boy, who seemed deeply engrossed into his book.

"I'm forced to come here, so…" Amamiya replied quietly.

The conversation died out right afterwards, and the room became silent, save for the ticking of the clock on the wall, and pages turning.

Then, she heard a snoring, that got louder and louder. Yukino shut her eyes lightly, trying to drown out the snoring, but to no avail. She shut her eyes harshly, causing her forehead to scrunch, but to no avail.

The snoring was interfering with her reading, damn it! She wanted to go over there and smack the boy awake. At least Amamiya would indulge that monkey into conversation and it'd be bearable. No, pretty bearable. No, it was a lose-lose either way.

As she continued reading her book, a stray thought wriggled into her mind, regarding her reading clubmate.

The thought? _He already made a friend._

The multiple sources of gossip she'd heard today painted this boy in such slander, she thought he'd be like her, but that wasn't necessarily the case. Here he was in the presence of...not-so-enjoyable company. How curious…

She shook the train of thought away, as she focused her attention back onto her book, realizing that she flipped a few pages without reading. She flipped back a few and found the spot in which she lost her attention. How unlike her.

_Knock knock!_

Yukino and, she also noticed Amamiya, looked up from their books and at the door. Sakamoto was still slumped into his seat.

Finally, someone that knows how to ask for permission to enter.

"Come in," she called out, and the door slid open in response.

"E-Excuse me! Hiratsuka-sensei sent me in here…," came a meek greeting, and a girl with orange hair tied into a loose side bun walked in, shutting the door behind her. Ah, she recognized her. Yui...Yuigahama, if she recalled correctly?

Yui's eyes widened slightly, with her attention to the two boys on the further side of the room.

"Eh...Ryu? Renren? What are you two doing here?!" She exclaimed in surprise, pointing at the two as she stomped her foot.

Oh boy, another loud one.

"Renren…?" Amamiya muttered, before shaking his head. "I'm a member of this club. I'm sorry, but you're...Yuigahama-san…?"

"How could you forget who I am?!" Yuigahama asked in a shout, "We shared notes earlier today!"

While the two were re-acquainting themselves, she opted to pull out a chair and placed it onto the ground beside hers. The thud of the legs hitting the ground drew Yuigahama's attention to her.

"You're Yui Yuigahama, correct? Please take a seat."

The girl replied with a beaming smile, taking the seat.

"You know who I am?" Yuigahama asked in awe.

"Seems like you'd know everyone here," Yukino heard Amamiya say offhandedly.

"That's not true, I didn't know who you were," she replied.

"That's because I just transferred in."

"And you missed a day, yet everyone knew who you were before you even stepped foot on campus."

"I...still don't know how that happened."

"You should. Social security theft is a crime, you know."

"Wooow! Renren, you sure talk a lot here!" Yuigahama exclaimed. It seemed she was...enjoying this interaction? "He's so quiet in class and everyone is always talking bad about him…"

Yuigahama's tone took a depressive turn, and the banter quieted down.

The flip of a page. He'd gone back to reading.

"Don't worry," Amamiya replied, "I'm used to it. So why are you here?"

' _Used to it?'_ Yukino wondered, though before that train of thought could set out, Yuigahama responded.

"Oh right!"

* * *

"When did we get here?"

"You slept through it all."

"Yeah, but...oh, Yuigahama's here too."

Their club, as well as one Yuigahama were now standing at the back of one of the Home Economics room. Yukinoshita and Yuigahama were wearing an apron that Ren daresay looked good on them. The colorful aprons were a good contrast to Yukinoshita's broody self and complimented Yuigahama's energy.

"Woaaaah, lookin' good Yuigahama! You too Yukinoshita!" Ryuji exclaimed, giving them a thumbs up.

"Thanks Ryu!" Yuigahama responded in earnest, while Yukinoshita...shuddered.

"Please keep your perverted thoughts to yourself," she replied simply.

"Arghhh! This woman! Just accept the damn compliment!" Ryuji pointed at the black haired girl, before switching his attention to Yuigahama, "And what the hell's up with that nickname?!"

Ren ought to thank his friend for both expressing his opinion and taking the brunt of one Yukino Yukinoshita.

Yuigahama smiled, opting to not respond to the blonde haired boy. "So...I called you here because...I want to learn how to bake!"

"She wants to make homemade cookies for someone, but…" Yukinoshita started.

"I'm not very confident…" the orange-haired girl finished.

"So...why don't you ask your friends?" Ren asked curiously. Surely, a girl like her with a high charisma stat would have all types of friends.

"Well...my group of friends…," she twiddled her fingers, "They're not really all about this serious stuff. Plus, Hiratsuka-sensei this club grants wishes!"

"Not quite, Yuigahama-san," Yukinoshita began speaking, pulling out the various instruments necessary for baking cookies from the cupboard underneath, "We teach people to stand on their own two feet. A rehabilitation, if you will, of their own independence."

Ren furrowed his brow. Rehabilitation. Igor said that once, but...was this that rehabilitation he mentioned? This club? If so, then the phallic-nosed man was being more cryptic than necessary. He let out a short involuntary chuckle.

"Something funny, Amamiya-san?" He heard Yukinoshita ask, causing him to shake his head.

"Just a stray thought."

"Let's hurry up and get to baking already! I'm hungry!" Ryuji said excitedly, and Ren turned to look at him. He was...wearing an apron too…?

"And...what am I supposed to do?" Ren found himself asking.

"Just taste them and give us your opinions."

An hour passed by, with Yukinoshita giving highly detailed lectures and instructions. She seemed good at this. He wondered if she, too, could bake.

He would learn that answer later. For now…

Yuigahama's cookies were...definitely something. They were crumbled, blackened, and one would think they were chocolate cookies dotted with white chocolate.

Ren picked up a piece of the burned cookies, and it disintegrated in his hand. That wasn't white chocolate, that was an eggshell.

Wait, they didn't even use chocolate!

Ryuji's on the other hand were...surprisingly good. Well, they were decent. But still, it beat his expectations. They weren't perfect like Yukinoshita's, but they were definitely edible looking. And they smelled good too.

Ren opened his mouth to say one thing. "Yuigahama-san…? If I didn't know better, I'd say you're trying to kill me."

Yukinoshita seemed to share the sentiment. "How could one mess up so much?"

Yuigahama's head dropped with every criticism headed her way.

"How could Ryu do better than me…?"

"I'm surprised though, Sakamoto-san. You managed to exceed my horribly low expectations of you," Yukinoshita added, inspecting Ryuji's cookies.

"I...uh...is that a compliment? Or…?"

"Maybe I'm just not cut out for cooking. I just don't have the talent for it," Yuigahama said with a resigned sigh.

"Gonna quit before you find out?" Ren asked with a gaze. She squirmed a bit underneath it.

"I—"

"Try again. Your proficiency will build up over time."

"Yeah, Yuigahama! You can't quit 'til you've tried!" Ryuji added, which seemed to bolster Yuigahama's morale.

"Y-you're right! Let's try this again!" Yuigahama replied, pumping her fist with newfound vigor.

Ren cracked a mild smile.

"How...surprisingly charismatic. To think a delinquent and this neanderthal could be useful."

Aaaand it was gone.

"Why don't you say something encouraging, then?!" Ryuji asked heatedly.

"No need. You've done your job as moral support, and I shall go through with doing it with her. But I will say this: I read in a book once that said talented people do not follow through their commitments despite having the talent for it. So one must also have the grit to persevere despite lacking the talent. People aren't suddenly good at what they do. It's long and arduous work. Day in, day out, for weeks, months, or years. So it doesn't matter if you have the talent for it," Yukinoshita said softly.

Ren held a hidden smile. So this tongue-lashing president of his can say something other than insults.

"Yeah, but...nobody seems to really want to do that these days," Yuigahama said unsurely, gripping the hems of her apron.

"Please stop trying to match those around you. It's terribly annoying. Isn't it embarrassing to look towards others for them to tell you why you're clumsy or awkward? It's not cute," Yukinoshita said sharply.

And just like that the room went silent. Ren felt his brow furrow, while Ryuji muttered a low, "Yup...that's the Ice Queen for ya…"

Yuigahama was looking down, a shadow forming over her eyes as she tightly gripped the hem of her apron, before her head suddenly shot upwards.

"Y-You're so cool!" Yuigahama replied, surprisingly upbeat.

Huh…?

"Huh…? I...I'm sure what I said is harsh," Yukinoshita looked over in shock, clearly not ready for the praise she received.

"Well, it's harsh, true, but your words hold truth to them. So you're cool! This club is really cool! I didn't realize you guys were so supportive!" Yuigahama said, with stars in her eyes as she clasped Yukinoshita's hands.

Well...that took a turn.

"Er...p-please let go…"

"Alright teach!" Ryuji said, helping to dissipate the tense atmosphere by hooking his arm around the poor girl, "Show her how it's done—Ag!"

"That was bold, Ryuji," Ren found himself chuckling, as he watched the boy cradle his ribcage.

"She assaulted me! She should get a criminal record!"

"It was merely self-defense. What would you do if a sketchy looking person placed their hands on you?" Yukinoshita asked, pulling out more ingredients for her and Yuigahama to start again.

"You guys are so fun! Let's do this!"

Ren watched them from behind silently, tugging at his locks.

* * *

Yukinoshita can indeed bake. Ren stared down at perfectly shaped cookies, its buttery scent wafting to his nose, enticing him to take a bite. And...Yuigahama…

She presented her perfectly made cookies proudly with a smile.

"I did it!"

"Woaaaaah! Nice job Yuigahama!"

"Good job, it seems you did well this time around," Yukinoshita said, with a rare smile on her face.

Though...Ren couldn't help but join their sentiment. That feeling from a few days ago returned.

' _This feels...wrong…,'_ Ren thought with a frown. One that didn't seem to go unnoticed.

"Renren, are you okay?" He heard Yuigahama ask in concern, and he looked up. Everyone's eyes were on him.

"Yeah, sorry. Just thinking. You did good, Yuigahama-san," Ren replied with a small smile plastered onto his face.

"Would you...like some?" She asked.

Ren eyed the cookies hesitantly. These...these would be perfect for the Metaverse.

"Sure. I'll eat it later. I'd like to take yours as well, Yukinoshita-san," Ren replied.

"Ehhh…? Why not now?" Yuigahama pouted.

"Er...okay…?" The raven haired girl seemed surprised at his request, though she seemed to be fine with it, as she pulled out two small plastic bags.

Receiving the two bags of cookies, he nodded in appreciation. "Thanks, I'll uh...this'll boost my stamina later."

"Ryuji, I'll take yours too."

"Amamiya-kun, you know eating too many cookies would be bad for your health. Why do you need them all anyways?" Yukinoshita asked curiously.

"Well…," Shit. He didn't think he'd be pressed like that. Though to be fair, walking away with three bags of diabetes would be a slight concern.

"He's gonna feed 'em to his cat!" Ryuji offered up helpfully. Though Ren could only facepalm on the inside. What was up with using a cat, that they met just once, as an excuse?

"Woaah, Renren, you have a cat? What's his name?" Yuigahama asked excitedly, suddenly appearing to close to his face. Ren took a step back.

' _Damn it, Ryuji…,'_ he cursed his friend mentally. Think, think, his cat's name...was, uh…Well. Sorry Morgana.

"Morgana. His name is Morgana," Ren replied quickly.

"I see…," He heard Yukinoshita mutter. Was that excitement in her voice?

"Y-Yeah...uh. Ahem," Ren took a moment to recompose himself. "Let's clean up here and then let's go."

Ren eyed Ryuji. An action that his blonde companion noticed, and they locked eyes.

" _We doing this?"_

" _Yeah, let's."_

Ryuji's eyes widened, as if he remembered something, and he began speaking, "Oh, right! Yuigahama! I...uh…I saw you get into Kamoshida's car yesterday."

"Did she now?" Yukinoshita asked, washing the dishes and utensils that they used.

"Huh? Oh you saw that? Yeah, he offered me a ride before, but since it was raining…," Yuigahama explained sheepishly.

"Right well…," Ryuji said.

"Be careful," Ren warned, as he finished returning the last of the used instruments.

Yuigahama only looked at the two in confusion, though they didn't respond.

With everything put away and cleaned, Ren looked to Ryuji.

"Let's go."

With that, they exited the room. Their next course of action? Finding the castle.

* * *

"Forreal?!" Ryuji shouted to the front of Sobu High School. "Why won't you become a castle already?!"

Ren had to nudge him on the side. Right where Yukinoshita jabbed him.

"Quiet down."

"This just doesn't make any sense! We saw it yesterday!" Ryuji stomped his foot onto the ground.

"Have you tried checking your phone?" Ren asked.

"Yeah, already did. No castle anywhere in the history of Sobu like...ever. Well...maybe that's a lie. I don't know my history," Ryuji said, pulling his phone out to show Ren. A dawn of realization seemed to hit him. "Hey wait! Not my phone, _your_ phone! Didn't you have a navigation thingy on back then?"

"Did I?" Ren asked. The only time Ren had his GPS on was when…

"Yeah! You did! Didn't it say stuff like, 'returned to the real world' or sum'?" Ryuji said.

Ren pulled his phone out, and lo and behold...that app was there again. The red eye in the icon stared at him.

"Duude...what's that eyeball looking thing?" Ryuji asked, suddenly beside him.

"Cute logo, huh?"

"Cute is a bit of a stretch, but...open it up!"

Ren pressed on the red application and the icon expanded, a GPS popping up on his phone.

"I knew it! This is the one! It even has your search history! Awwww shiit, I'm a genius!" Ryuji exclaimed excitedly, causing Ren to look around. Sure enough, people were staring…

"Let's use it right now!" Ryuji said excitedly, which prompted for Ren to widen his eyes.

"Hey wai—"

"Beginning navigation," a female robotic voice spoke, turning Ren's screen into a flickering red. The app's logo took up the entire screen as a static sound blasted through his speakers before unnaturally reverberating through the sky. Ren hoped nobody else heard this.

And then felt it. A warping sensation that seemed to shift his senses, while the environment changed.

The overcast sky turned into an ominous red with purple clouds, and Sobu High warped into the castle that they were searching hard for.

"No...effin'...way…," he heard Ryuji mutter in awe as they stared upwards at the building placed behind a giant castle gate.

Ren felt a heavier weight on his body and he inspected himself, finding that his schoolwear had transformed into black attire he'd unlocked the last time he was here.

' _I wonder…?'_ Ren brought his face up to his eyes, and when his gloved fingertips came into contact with the hard plastic, he knew he had his mask on too.

"Gah! Those clothes!" he heard Ryuji shout, and a smirk graced Ren's face, looking at the boy who was still wearing his uniform and yellow graphic tee.

"Jelly?"

"N-no...I'm...I'm not jelly…," Ryuji sulked, before shaking his head vigorously. "Let's go!"

And with that, they ran past the gate and to the castle's giant closed doors.

"Hey!" A vaguely familiar voice shouted at them. They turned to look towards the direction of the voice and just around the corner, a spheroidal feline head popped out. It was Morgana, the cat-mascot that was decisive to their escape yesterday.

"Ah...you?!" Ryuji blanched as the not-cat revealed the rest of its body, hopping out of the corner.

"The shadows started acting up again, so I came over here to see what it could be," Morgana explained, turning his attention to Ren. "Though...you've got guts coming back here."

"So wait," Ryuji started, scratching his head. "Is this the school?"

Morgana turned his attention back to the blonde haired boy. "That's right."

"But…! This is a castle!" Ryuji retorted.

"This castle _is_ the school. But only to the ruler of this palace."

"Castle's ruler…?" Ryuji parroted.

"I think you called him...Kamoshida?" Morgana asked in a tone that didn't doubt that Ryuji would connect the dots. "It's how his distorted heart views the school."

"Wait...Kamoshida...distorted…? Hotel...Trivago?" Ryuji asked again. "Explain it in a way that makes sense!"

"Ahhh, I didn't expect for a moron to get it…"

"Careful Ryuji. If Yukinoshita could see you now, I'm sure a vein would pop trying to see you struggle to put the pieces together," Ren said, finally deciding to join in the conversation.

He earned a glare from his friend that shouted, " _How dare you mention that girl's name!",_ though Ren ignored it, as he continued speaking, "So basically, Kamoshida is the ruler of this palace and he views Sobu High School as his castle?"

"That's right!" Morgana exclaimed happily, before glaring at Ryuji. " _Someone_ gets it…"

"What was that, you—"

Then, they heard a blood curdling scream resound from the castle that made them shiver.

"Wh-what the hell was that…?" Ryuji asked in panic.

"It must be the slaves captive here," Morgana replied.

"Forreal?"

Another blood curdling scream that seemed to reaffirm what Morgana mentioned.

"No way...it is forreal! We saw other guys captive here the other day. I know I've seen 'em at school before, but I'm not sure where," Ryuji said.

"Yeah, most likely on Kamoshida's orders. Nothing out of the ordinary, but since you two escaped yesterday, I'm sure Kamoshida had a higher temper than usual."

"That son of a bitch!" Ryuji exclaimed angrily.

Ren and Morgana looked at him in concern.

"Ryuji…?" Morgana called out.

"This is bullshit!" Ryuji yelled, his agitation peaking as he suddenly turned around and rammed into the castle's doors. But the doors refused to budge open. "You hear me Kamoshida?!"

"That's not going to do anything, you know," Morgana said calmly.

"But he has his reasons," Ren added in. The more they interacted with this castle and Kamoshida, the more he could see a clearer picture about Ryuji and Kamoshida. Something must have happened to him before regarding Kamoshida, but what?

Ryuji walked back over to them, slightly less agitated than a few seconds ago. "Hey Meltryllis! Think you can take us to the voices?"

"It's Morgana! Morgana replied heatedly, before his eyes took a shape that looked like he was raising an eyebrow, "And why would you want me to take you there? But...I guess I could guide you there. But only if he comes with us."

Ren pointed at himself, reaffirming that Morgana was referring to him. With a nod from the cat-like creature, Ren nodded his head.

"Let's go."

Morgana jumped in excitement, waving his arms in the air, "Great! Then it's settled then! Follow me!"

Ryuji turned to look at Ren, and spoke in a tired voice, "...Thanks, man."

Ren nodded in response before following Morgana, who led them back to the large duct that they escaped from the first time.

"Wait, we're coming in through here? Isn't that where we escaped out of last time?" Ryuji looked up at the cat who was standing in the grate.

"Well duh, not barging through the entrance is one of the basics of phantom thievery. So c'mon, let's go!" And with that, Morgana disappeared into their entrance.

As Ren was about to jump up, he was interrupted by Ryuji's voice. Ren looked at him, who seemed to struggle with what he was trying to say.

After a brief moment of hesitation, Ryuji finally spoke.

"Hey man, sorry for dragging you into this. But I just can't forgive Kamoshida for doing this type of crap! I can't let him get away with it...not anymore."

Ren gazed at him with softened eyes, though Ryuji probably couldn't tell through his mask. So he placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Whatever it is that Kamoshida did...we'll make sure you and whoever else he's hurt gets due recompense."

Ryuji smiled. "Yeah...thanks man! Let's kick ass!"

"Well...I'll kick ass," Ren replied with a smirk, jumping up into the entrance, and making his way through the shaft.

Exiting the shaft, he landed in a dimly lit room, with barrels, tables and chairs scattered around the room. Good to know that this place wasn't touched since the last time they came in.

"Down below!" he heard Ryuji yell from behind him, and Ren stepped aside, allowing Ryuji to tumble and hit the ground where once stood. With a groan, he got up. "Yeah...thanks for catching me…"

"Oh, I was supposed to do that?" Ren asked cheekily, earning a soft punch from his friend.

"Asshat…"

"C'mon!" Morgana said, standing by the opened door that led to a hallway, "Follow me!"

The three of them exited the room and down the hall, leading to the main lobby.

' _Ah, this place brings back memories,'_ Ren thought as they crossed the empty room. He wondered if they were going to get cornered by knights again.

He glanced around at his surroundings, scanning for any movement or knights. Nope, nothing. They were safe.

Suddenly, the room distorted and the main hall they were looking at transformed briefly into one of the halls of Sobu.

"W-Woah…!" Ryuji exclaimed in surprise, taking a step back, "Was it just me or did we just see Sobu?"

"I told you, dingus, this is your school. But let's not focus on that now. We gotta cross here as soon as possible before any shadows show up," Morgana replied, and they ran across the room and into a door leading them into a spiral staircase.

The stairs led them down into an underground area with a stream running through the center and a path leading through an opened gate.

"Wait!" Morgana said in a hushed voice, and they took cover behind the gate. His instincts proved right as they heard the metallic sound of footsteps get close and then becoming distant again. "Patrols...guess we'll have to fight our way through. Think you can handle it rookie?"

"Been itching to fight again," Ren replied with a lopsided grin.

"Alright. Let's go in for an ambush. You'll have to rip their masks off to momentarily release the control the palace ruler has on them. And then we can go in for a preemptive strike!"

With that, Morgana and Ren silently rushed at the unaware lone guard, with Ren jumping up onto the guard's shoulders before gripping the mask and prying it off.

"Show me your true form!" Ren shouted, as a black and red mist sprayed into the air as the body disintegrated, being replaced by the familiar sight of a Jack-O-Lantern.

Ren and Morgana jumped together in a linear formation, his knife at the ready while Morgana pulled out a cuirass out of who knows where.

"Show me what you got rookie!" Morgana yelled.

"Persona," Ren said calmly, ripping his mask off, as he willed Arsène to appear. The red suited devil made his presence known above him by unfurling his wings. "Eiha."

"By your command," Arsène responded, as a beam of black and red energy engulfed the little thing, though unlike the first time, it failed to eradicate the creature.

"Not bad!" Morgana shouted, before rushing up to the Jack-O-Lantern, "My turn!"

Ren returned the mask to his face and he felt Arsène's presence disappear.

He watched Morgana swing his blade, striking the monster and dealing the finishing blow.

"That was sick!" Ren heard Ryuji say as he came out from his hiding place and ran up behind them. "Wish I could do that…"

"Maybe you'll get your chance," Ren replied.

With the immediate danger gone, he was able to focus more on their surroundings. Jail cells decked their side of the stream, with a bridge connecting their side to a platform on the other side of the stream which connected to a hallway.

"These cells are empty," Ryuji said, inspecting a cell. Releasing his frustration, he slammed a cell loudly. "Damn it! Why ain't anyone here?!"

"Quiet down! Or do you want this expedition to be over before it already began?" Morgana scolded, before pointing towards the bridge, "Let's try there, the bridge leads to a hallway deeper in. I suspect that Kamoshida had them moved already."

With that, they crossed the bridge and down the path, but not before they heard multiple footsteps heading their direction.

"Oh shit, that sounds like a lot of 'em!" Ryuji panicked slightly.

"Then let's hide until they leave," Morgana replied calmly, eyeing a door to their side. "Through here. They shouldn't follow us in here."

They scrambled through the door, with Ren closing the door behind them quietly.

The room they decided to take refuge seemed to be a small storage space, with crates and barrels placed along the sides and a table in the center. Ren took a mental note of this place. It might be a good place to reconvene.

Ren took a step closer to the center of the room, but the room distorted slightly, revealing a classroom layout that heavily resembled his before returning to the dimly lit castle themed room.

"It did it again! What was that?" Ryuji asked.

"This must be a place that's weak in distortion. A place where the ruler doesn't have much power over in the real world," Morgana explained, as he jumped up onto the table.

Ren furrowed his brow, pinching his lip. Releasing it, he looked up at Ryuji. "Makes sense. I think this is...Hiratsuka-sensei's classroom. If it's her room, then no doubt, Kamoshida can't take over this place."

"Now do you understand?" Morgana asked. "This place is the ruler's reality that the heart projects."

"So this is...Kamoshida's reality?" Ryuji scrunched his forehead, trying his darndest to wrap his head around the information. Clearly, it failed.

"Ah, this shit makes no sense!"

"You could say that this place is a world in which one's desires have materialized. I call this place...a Palace," Morgana continued to explain.

"This palace materialized because Kamoshida thinks of the school as his castle. Like you said, he's the king of the castle," Ren added, hoping that Ryuji would finally come to understand more of the puzzle that was this world.

"Ahhhh, so it became like this because Kamoshida thought of Sobu that way?" Ryuji chuckled mirthlessly, before exploding agitatedly, "That son of a bitch!"

Ren and Morgana looked at Ryuji with concern once again.

"You must really hate this guy," Morgana muttered before speaking louder, "I don't know what happened, but you can't let your emotions get the better of you. Remember, these are your lives on the line."

Ren returned to thinking, processing this new load of information. This Palace has something to do with Igor and that room. Igor and that room have something to do with...Personas, as well as his new power. And his clothes…

"You're probably curious about your clothes, aren't you?" Ren heard Morgana ask, pulling him away from his train of thought. Ren blinked, processing his question before nodding.

"I am."

"Well, your clothes are another distortion caused by this Palace. Or rather...the Metaverse as a whole. You see, your clothes are the result of a strong will of rebellion. Think of it as a crime fighter in a corrupt city."

For some reason, a bat-like vigilante came to mind, though Ren had no idea where that thought came from.

"I see," Ren replied. That explained why he came back to this world with these clothes already on, compared to the first time when his clothes would randomly switch. Even Arsène told him that his knife was the result of projecting his rebellious soul against this place.

"Okay, that's enough!" Ryuji exclaimed before gesturing towards Morgana, "What about you?! What the hell are you?!"

Ren was curious about that too. Morgana kept on insisting that he was always—

"...human! I'm an honest-to-god human!" Morgana defended, rather heatedly, if Ren might add.

"No...you're a cat! An honest-to-god cat!" Ryuji retorted.

"Am not! I'm a hu-man!"

"If it looks like a fish, talks, like a fish, and smells like a fish, THEN IT'S A DAMN FISH!"

"Well, I might look like a cat, and smell like a cat, but what if I talk like a human?!"

"Huh, that's…," That caused Ryuji to stumble in his tracks, before recomposing himself, pointing at the honest-to-god cat, "Then you're just strange!"

Ren sighed at their bickering. He already had to keep Yukinoshita and Ryuji at arms' length from each other in the clubroom. Was he going to have to do the same with Ryuji and Morgana here, too?

"Okay," Ren interrupted, looking at Morgana, "So say you are a human. Why are you like that?"

"Well, I've lost my memories, but I think I know how to get my form back. Basically, the reason why I came here was to prove my theory! But," Morgana wilted, "I got caught…"

"Some master thief you are…," Ryuji muttered.

"Hey! Kamoshida tortured me too, ya know?! He's gonna pay for what he did!" Morgana sprang back to life with a vigor.

"Then let's move," Ren said, placing an ear against the door, "I don't hear footsteps. It should be safe to proceed."

As Ren was about to open the door, another interruption occurred.

"Hey wait!" Ryuji called out, and Ren turned to look at him, a brow raised.

"I wasn't gonna let you continue alone so I brought supplies!" Ryuji said excitedly. Though what he pulled out from god-knows-where made Ren panic slightly. If they just came from school...

"Ryuji…," Ren started slowly, "You brought a gun to school?"

"Y-yeah!" Ryuji replied before stopping to think about his actions, "I...I guess I did...but! It's a toy gun!"

"That's besides the point! You brought a gun to school!" Ren fired back, before rubbing his head, holding his hand out to take it.

The newfound weight on his hand signified that Ryuji had given him the weapon and he inspected it lightly. It was just a black handgun, something that a flea market sold. Despite being told that it was a toy, the gun had the weight and feel of a real one. Even the orange barrel extension that proved it was fake was gone.

Holstering the gun onto his belt (which he found that a gun holster had materialized as well), Ren nodded in thanks, to which Ryuji gave a thumbs up.

"Shall we?"

* * *

Eavesdropping for intel seemed to give them a successful push in the goal for their current run in this Palace, as they stealthily made their way from the place Morgana called a 'Safe Room' down to the Training Hall where the captives were transported.

On their way down to the Training Hall, they were able to experiment with new battle tactics and test out the use of the toy gun Ryuji had brought along. It turned out that the cheap toy gun was able to shoot real bullets at the enemy.

" _As long as the enemy thinks it's real, then it would work."_

The toy gun was even useful in knocking off masks, giving them more opportunities for ambushes.

The biggest thing though, was the coordinated attack between Ren and Morgana. An All-Out-Attack, if you would, that relied on the synchronization between Ren and Morgana.

It was, at the very least, cool.

"What the eff…," Ryuji looked on in abhorrent shock, an expression that was shared with Ren and Morgana.

They were looking into a large jail cell elevated from the cell floor. At the bottom, students in tennis uniforms gripped the net in pain, with whips constantly striking against their backs. Screams of pain reached their ears, begging to stop, but their pleas were unheeded.

"This is bullshit!" Ryuji grit his teeth at the sight.

"There's more here, too," they heard Morgana say, who had slipped away while they were watching.

They turned their heads to Morgana, who was observing another cell and they made their way to him. This cell contained students hanging by their feet, attempting to dodge high speed tennis balls that launched from a machine.

"Come on! What the hell are you doing?!" They heard a disgustingly familiar voice from a different cell, and they snuck over to the cell in which the voice came from.

There at the bottom, was Kamoshida, handing out a particularly painful 'training'. Students were on one end of the court, but without their racquets. On the other end, was Kamoshida with a tennis racquet.

He tossed the ball up into the air to serve it, and with a downward smash, the ball spiraled into one of the students' kneecaps with a sickening crunch.

The student in question cried out in pain as he gripped his leg, but Kamoshida, as expected, felt no sympathy. He glared at the injured student.

"Come on! How are you supposed to become a better tennis player like this?!" Kamoshida spat at the student before shouting to someone off the court. "Zaimoku-shit! Where are you?!"

Out of nowhere, a large tubby boy with white hair and glasses appeared, wearing a prisoner's uniform with his hands shackled together.

Ryuji's eyes widened, before speaking quietly, "That's...Yoshiteru Zaimokuza. I didn't know he had any connection to Kamoshida…"

"Y-Yes...Kamoshida-sama?" The boy asked hesitantly. Ren could see the fear in his eyes.

"Revive that boy, quickly! His training isn't done yet!" Kamoshida snarled, and Zaimokuza rushed over to the injured boy, who was pleading for the large boy to help him.

"Sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," Zaimokuza muttered, shoving a pellet into the boy's mouth and his leg began to mend itself back.

"Good!" Kamoshida seemed pleased now, "Now get out of here before I replace him with you!"

"Y-Yes, Kamoshida-sama," Zaimokuza bowed before rushing out of the court.

From Ren's side, he heard Ryuji growl in anger.

"This is beyond messed up! How do we get 'em out of here!" Ryuji asked heatedly. "Lemme open this!"

"Are you stupid?" Morgana asked, "We can't get 'em out of here!"

Ryuji winced in response. "B-but we can't just leave 'em here!"

"They're not real," Morgana began explaining, hoping to quell Ryuji's (understandably) quickly rising anger, "They're just copies. A cognition of the people in the real world, not like you two. But still, this is horrible. It means that he must be treating the students like this in the real world too…"

"Is this the tennis team Kamoshida coaches…?" Ren asked insightfully, his eyes hardening as Kamoshida launched another high speed serve at the student.

"Yeah. Which means this is how he treats the tennis team in the real world. Is he abusing them in the real world too?" Ryuji asked.

"Most likely. This is Kamoshida's cognition, after all," Morgana replied sadly.

"I...I've seen the tennis team around school with bad injuries, but was that really because of Kamoshida?" Ryuji asked hesitantly, before continuing, "Wouldn't this be something that the school would report to the police?"

"If it is, they'd probably be keeping it under wraps," Ren replied. Especially since he noticed how Principal Kobayakawa and Kamoshida were buddy-buddy.

"Alright, then let me just use this as evidence and we can take that asshole down!" Ryuji said, whipping out his phone.

Ryuji aimed his phone at the sight before him, but Ren saw that the camera only captured blackness. Like there was nothing there.

"Huh? I can't use my camera! So we can use the navigation app, but can't use the camera?" Ryuji looked over to Ren, "How about your phone?"

Ren pulled his phone out, but found out that his phone was not allowing him to access anything. Pressing on the camera app did nothing, pressing on his mail application did nothing. He couldn't even swipe across the home screen. Ren shook his head at Ryuji, who sighed in defeat.

"Navigation app?" Morgana asked curiously.

"It's what we used to get here," Ren replied.

"Okay, well we know what they look like and we know that Zaimokuza is in cahoots with Kamoshida, so let's head off," Ryuji said, backing away from the cell.

"Right," Ren replied, taking one last look into the cell where Kamoshida was. But the ruler of the Palace was gone.

* * *

What went wrong…?

He was a good kid or so he wanted to believe. He did everything his parents told him to, he got good grades, he listened to his teachers.

So why was it so hard to make friends?

Was it because he was fat? Or because he wore glasses?

Surely not. He had seen another blonde fat kid make friends with another black haired boy in middle school.

So...what went wrong?

"Zaimokuza!" A rough hand planted itself onto his shoulder.

Ah, there...his saving grace…

Yoshiteru looked up from his desk and to the owner of the hand who had a cheerful smile on his face. What was he doing in his classroom?

"Kamoshida-sens—, I mean, Kamoshida-sama. I-is there something you need?" He asked curiously. Kamoshida-sama seemed to be in a good mood, but usually when he was like this…

"I'm gonna need you to round up the tennis team today. We have that exhibition scrimage for the school in a few days," Kamoshida-sama explained.

Ah...those poor souls…

"I'll get to it, sir. I just...need to finish writing my novel fir—"

"No one's going to care about this fanfiction you're writing, Zaimokuza," Kamoshida-sama smiled warmly, though his smile meant anything but. He was right though. Who would want to read this fanfiction? It was basically the same cookie-cutter plot using the same characters.

But he was doing something different, wasn't he?

' _No, no, Kamoshida-sama is right...nobody would want to read this,'_ he thought, adjusting his glasses before replying, "You're right. I'll gather the boys right away…"

"Good kid," he heard the teacher say, releasing his hold on his shoulder before walking away.

His shoulder hurt.

He stared down at his work. Was he going to toss twenty three pages of work? Of course! Kamoshida-sama knew best for him. But still, he felt...like that wasn't the case.

He gripped the edges of the stack of papers and began to crush them together before stopping. No...yes? No...he didn't know.

Yoshiteru stood up hastily from his chair, grabbing the stack mostly unharmed papers and stuffing it into his bag. He'll deal with that later. For now, he had a tennis team to rally.

He received strange looks from the other students as he left the class in search of some of the tennis team, though he ignored them. They wouldn't understand why Kamoshida-sama was being friendly to him. But soon, he'll be able to be their friends too. Soon, he won't be a nobody.

There, walking along the hallway was a student he got quite familiar with. Saiki Totsuka. The tennis team captain.

The student in question had silver hair, donning the same Sobu uniform as everyone else (save for a blonde haired student he'd heard about), and was walking with a slight limp.

' _Still hasn't fully recovered from last time huh?'_ He grimaced, though paid no heed to the thought any further. He cupped his hands to his mouth and yelled, "Totsuka-san!"

The boy froze midstep, though he did not relax, and Yoshiteru ran up to him.

Why was Totsuka afraid of him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back again, earlier than I thought I'd be. How'zit? 
> 
> I have come to the realization that for casual purposes, nobody wants to read about venturing into the Palace every single time, but at the same time, some exposition doth be necessary. I hope I did y'all justice this time around, though I personally am not quite sure about how I feel about this. I think I need to work on my dialogue descriptives. I've double proofread this and uhhh yeah. So I appreciate any criticisms you may have. I am, after all, trying to get better at this for myself (and by extension for you guys too). Also, was Yukinoshita's POV okay? How about the interaction in Yui's scene? I think those two are my biggest concern.
> 
> So to address a concern from y'all...
> 
> Akechi will be Akechi, buuuuuut 8guy will be around...somewhere, somehow.
> 
> With that being said, I shall see y'all when I see y'all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I appreciate the kudos and for anyone checking this story out! It means a lot!

"Ryu—grk!"

Ren decided, right this instant that he did not like to get stepped on. The feeling of Kamoshida's sole on his cheek was a disgusting and humiliating feeling.

Tch. At this rate, these bruises will never heal…

"Finally, the intruders receive their justice," Kamoshida smirked haughtily, grinding his foot against Ren's cheek.

"No! Morgana! Ren!" he heard Ryuji shout past the wall of knights that cut them off from their defenseless companion.

"Ryu...ji…," Morgana whimpered beside him, struggling to get up before being pushed back down again by a knight's foot.

"What a shame…," Ren heard Kamoshida say tauntingly, "How far the star runner of the track team has fallen. Ending your track team's dreams like that. I can only imagine how painful it was to be dragged down because of your...selfish acts. And now, it seems like you've become just an emotional, worthless piece of trash."

"N-no. I...I did what was best for them! You trapped them in physical abuse!," Ryuji shouted defiantly, though Ren could hear the confidence in Ryuji's voice waver.

Ren hoped that his friend would stay strong. He can't give up yet.

"What are you talking about? As long as _I_ achieved results, then it doesn't matter. Do you need me to deal with your other leg too? Stains of Sobu need to stay stains of Sobu! It's not like they'll believe you anyways," Kamoshida chuckled evily, finally taking his foot off of Ren's face and taking a step towards the defenseless Ryuji.

"So that's why…," he heard Morgana's strained voice.

That's why Ryuji has a vendetta against Kamoshida. This wasn't just for him. This was for everyone else Kamoshida wronged. Even as a "stain of Sobu", his heart was anything but.

"Ryuji!" Ren shouted, struggling to get up, "Stand up and figh—"

Ren felt the wind blow out of his lungs as he felt himself pushed back onto the ground forcefully. He looked fiercefuly at Ryuji, hoping to convey his message.

" _Are you going to let him continue doing what hs's doing?"_

Ryuji stared back into Ren's eyes, and he got up shakily, pointing an accusatory finger at Kamoshida.

"You...your reign of terror ends now! You're never going to look down at people ever again!" Ryuji shouted with all of the fury he could muster, before his eyes widened painfully.

Ren, realizing what was going to occur, smirked proudly.

"It's over, Kamoshida," Ren taunted in a strained voice.

"What are you…?" Kamoshida looked down at him with an angry frown, before his eyes widened in realization, swiftly turning his head to the blonde. "No! Stop him!"

Ryuji began to flail in pain, a skull-like mask forming on the top half of his face.

' _And now...your shackles are finally free,'_ Ren continued to watch as his friend pulled his mask off, blood spraying out into the air before glaring Kamoshida down with golden eyes.

As the guards rushed Ryuji, a burst of yellow energy pulsated through the room, knocking down the guards that attempted to restrain him.

Once the light died down, he saw a skull-faced pirate balancing on a wooden ship like a skateboard floating above Ryuji, who no longer wore his Sobu uniform. Instead, he was decked out in a black popped up collared jacket with a red ascot, black pants with knee pads, and yellow gloves that matched his hair.

Ryuji stared down Kamoshida menacingly, tapping a metal pipe against his neck.

"Geh...another one?!" Kamoshida growled, taking an involuntary step back at Ryuji's show of power. "Guards!"

Ren felt the foot that kept him down leave, and he saw the guard walk forward before transforming into a giant red knight on a black horse. The horse winneighed wildly as the knight readied its spear.

In that moment of distraction, Ren spun around quickly, shooting the knight on top of Morgana in the head taking it out before helping Morgana up.

The two rushed over to Ryuji's side and readied their weapons.

"Alright Ryuji!" Morgana shouted gleefully, raising his cuirass, "I hope you've been paying attention to my lessons!"

"Heh...glad to be onboard, _captain_ ," Ren added humorously, twirling his knife.

"Time to blast you away! Let's go, Captain Kidd!" Ryuji shouted, his Persona aiming its cannon at the rider.

"Eligor," his Persona spoke menacingly, "I hope

you are ready to hit the planks."

"Ha!" Eligor sneered in response, "What troublemakers that bother King Kamoshida with trifle matters! I'll be sure to end you quick."

With that, Eligor rushed forward to the trio, dragging its spearhead against the ground before swinging it upwards.

They dodged the incoming attack with ease, scattering and surrounding the red rider.

"Not bad, for punks such as yourself," Eligor commented, eyeing them cautiously.

"Let's see what I can do!" Ryuji shouted, prying off his mask, "Captain Kidd! Zio!"

A sudden blast of electricity came down upon the rider, giving it no time to dodge and shocking it slightly, though no noticeable harm seemed to show.

"Is that all you've got?" Eligor taunted, shaking off the attack.

"My turn!" Ren shouted from behind, prying off his own mask, with Arsène forming above him.

"Persona! Cleave him!"

Arsène dashed forward, his claws outstretched to swipe. When the attack connected, it managed to rip a hole into Eligor's armor, though Ren felt weak and lightheaded afterwards.

"Wha…?" Ren muttered to himself, as Arsène returned to him.

"Be careful," he heard Arsène say, "Some skills may drain you mentally. Others may drain you physically."

Ah, so that was it. He had to be careful balancing his attacks. Too much mental consumption and he might just go brain dead. Too much physical consumption and he might overwork himself to death.

"You alright there, Ren?!" Ryuji shouted from across the creature. "Eat some of those cookies you got! You hoarded 'em for a reason, right?!"

Ren's eyes widened slightly, remembering all the cookies in his inventory. He pulled out one of Yukinoshita's perfectly made cookies and munched on it, rejuvinating his energy.

"Heh, so it seems taking you down will require a lot more effort than I thought," Eligor said, readying its spear once again, before lunging at Ryuji.

This time, Eligor moved at a much faster pace, which didn't give Ryuji enough time to fully dodge the attack.

Though he managed to get away from anything fatal, his leg got caught in the cleaving attack.

"Shit!" Ryuji shouted as he stumbled upon his landing, grasping his bleeding leg.

Eligor did not give him any time to recuperate however, as he immediately went charging in for another slash, chasing the blonde boy throughout the room as he ducked and avoided each slash.

Ryuji was in trouble. With a leg that had a nasty wound, his movement was becoming sloppier and sloppier, finally causing him to trip over himself.

Eligor, in a seeming show of arrogance, trodded over to the downed boy, closing the gap slowly, which made Ren wonder: what was with it and villains taking their sweet time? Not that he was complaining.

Ren had to do something. He looked to Morgana who also seemed to look over at Ren, and in the split second of their eye contact, they came up with a plan.

Morgana began darting over to Ryuji, while

Ren peeled off his mask and called upon his Persona, to which Arsène answered once again.

He pointed at the area between Eligor and Ryuji and he shouted.

"Eiha!"

Suddenly, the Eiha bursted upwards, causing Eligor to instinctively shield his eyes as his horse rose, startled by the attack.

At that instance, Morgana swooped in and grabbed Ryuji, reconvening behind a pillar.

With their plan successfully executed, Ren peered out to the main room. The attack had disippated and Eligor was now searching for them.

"Where did you go, you little thieves?!"

Bringing his attention back to his group, he pulled out the other bags of cookies he had. Ren looked to Ryuji before looking down at Yuigahama's bagged charcoal. He immediately shook away the idea of even using it for consumption. And no way in hell was he going to give them some of Yukinoshita's cookies. He was planning on snacking on those later.

"You two are gonna have to share this," Ren said, tossing Ryuji the batch of cookies he made.

"Hey, I made these!" Ryuji said identifying the bag of cookies he caught, before giving a piece to Morgana.

"Ryuji made these…?" Morgana looked at the cookie skeptically.

"Aww come on! They're pretty good, if I do say so myself," Ryuji said as he consumed one.

"Yeah, who'da thought you could bake?" Morgana replied, chewing on his piece.

After a few more pieces, Ryuji was ready to jump back into action. The cut on his leg seemed to heal perfectly and even the cut mark on his pants stitched itself together as well, leaving no trace of a wound behind.

"Let's finish this and do that one thing! A showtime attack?"

"All-Out Attack!" Morgana corrected, before continuing, "And it's not that simple, we gotta knock him down first!"

"Then allow me," Ren said, brandishing his gun, "If we can just knock him off his feet, we can swoop in. I can rile up his horse, and then..."

"Ryuji and I can knock him over with our Personas," Morgana finished.

"Hells yeah! Ready, set…," Ryuji started, and Ren readied his weapon, "Go!"

Ren darted out of their hiding spot, whistling at Eligor as he skirted around the rider.

"There you are!" Eligor shouted, chasing him down.

Ren fired his gun as the rider tried to stab and swing at him, but he was too quick.

Finally pausing, he stopped to aim his gun at the horse's head. And with a trigger-happy finger that would put FPS console players to shame, he unleashed a barrage of bullets, striking the horse's head.

The horse panicked wildly, flailing around, as Eligor tried to control its animal. It finally managed to calm the horse down by pulling on its reigns, causing the horse to rise on its hind legs.

The trap was sprung.

"Zorro! Garu!"

"Captain Kidd! Zio!"

A burst of wind and a flash of lightning struck the rider at the same time in a show of green and yellow lights, and when the lights died down, Eligor was on the ground, struggling to get up.

The group quickly surrounded the downed rider, aiming their weapons at it.

"Time to die!" Ren said in a merciless voice, and the all-out attack began in a flurry of slashes (and bashes, in Ryuji's case) too fast for the eye to see.

"Show's over!" Ren shouted, as their attacks came to an end. The end result was a battered and dented Eligor who was no longer moving, and after a few seconds, it disintegrated into nothingness. All that was left was the three of them.

"We...did it?" Ryuji asked, panting lightly as he supported his body with his hands on his knees.

"Yeah...we did," Ren muttered, as he too, was catching his breath. So far, that was the toughest shadow they had ever fought. And if Ryuji's wound earlier meant anything, it was that they had to be really careful about how they dealt with dangerous shadows.

"Ha, just goes to show that Kamoshida ain't nothin' special," Ryuji said with a cocky smile.

"So...you beat Eligor, huh…?"

Kamoshida's voice drew their attention at the top of the stairs. Ren could see a silent fury in the ruler's eyes.

The man continued speaking, "I told you, this is my castle! And I won't have you do as you please!"

What happened next was something Ren was sure he wasn't meant to see.

Two girls walked side-by-side, approaching Kamoshida in a sultry fashion.

Ren's eyes widened slightly, as the two girls each took one of Kamoshida's arms.

"H-Hiratsuka...sensei…?"

"Yuigahama?!"

And not only that…

"Why in the hell are they wearin' bikinis?!" Ryuji asked, a blooming red spreading through his face, before finally looking away from the sight.

Ren quickly averted his gaze as well. For some reason, he felt like he would quickly learn of Hiratsuka-sensei's...violent tendencies if he continued to stare.

Morgana, on the other hand…

"W-Woahhhhhhh...what a meow-velous and beautiful woman! Her curves…! Her...her...everything! It's so…!"

Ren quickly shunned the string of sentences that came out of the talking not-cat's mouth. He wasn't sure who he was lusting for, but…

He was trying to figure out why Hiratsuka-sensei and Yuigahama were here, though if he had to take a guess, based on what he'd learned so far...

"This must be how Kamoshida views them," Ren concluded, still not looking at Kamoshida and the two ladies in front of him.

"Hiratsuka-sensei! C'mon! Do what you do to me and beat him already!" Ryuji shouted angrily.

That seemed to snap Morgana out of his daze, who replied back.

"Calm down, Ryuji! They're not the real ones. They're just like the slaves here."

"Jealous?" Kamoshida taunted, cupping both girls' cheeks, "Problematic thieves like you would never be able to get ladies. Now, I'm tired of seeing your faces! Eliminate them!"

With that, more guards popped up out of nowhere, forming a wall in front of them.

Normally, they would have wiped them out easily. But considering the fact that they had just finished what almost seemed like a boss battle? They just didn't have the energy to expend.

"We're outnumbered," Morgana said, speaking Ren's mind, "We gotta scram!"

"W-we're just gonna let him go?!" Ryuji asked defiantly.

"We can't die here, so we need to go," Ren replied.

"I—Arghhh! Fine!" Ryuji rubbed his head vigorously, before pointing a finger at Kamoshida, "We'll expose what you really are! So you better be ready for us!"

And with that, the three dashed between the openings of the wall that the guards have made, leaving Kamoshida and the two girls behind.

As they ran for the exit, Ren heard a devilish laugh and a taunting shout, one that caught up to them as they got closer and closed.

"Come at me whenever you want, if you want to throw away your life! Hahahaha!"

* * *

"What…?"

A hand stopped itself from flipping to the next page, as eyes scrutinized the words written at the bottom.

"Chariot...Arcana…? Bond...one…?"

What did that mean?

…

…

…

Whatever, it wasn't something to dwell on. Just a weird way of the author introducing a...game-like mechanic into a book?

"Or something like that. Not that I play video games. Or...why does it feel like I have?"

With the current reflection finished, a hand flipped to the next page and eyes continued to read, soaking in whatever else this author had in store.

* * *

Today was a nice day. The sun was shining, the skies were blue, and there were even a few fluffy clouds rolling by. Ren took a seat on a relatively secluded bench, right beside the building where his club room was. A shrub provided a slight bit of cover from the path between the main building and the club building.

' _Finally, a reprieve from all of this,'_ Ren thought to himself, stretching lightly.

His back was still sore from that heavy-footed knight from yesterday, and his bruises were at least well hidden now. There was no discoloration, but touching his face did bring about a soreness.

Despite his eagerness to re-enter the Palace yesterday, today was not the case. He replayed yesterday's events after leaving the Palace, slowly leaning back into the bench as he cracked open a freshly bought cold can of Arginade.

So he and Ryuji traded each other's pasts as well as each other's phone IDs, they got ramen, and then there was that visit to the Velvet Room last night too. Igor had explained to him about confidants and bonds and how he should take time to solidify those bonds throughout his "rehabilitation".

Still, the long nosed man did not explain what any of it meant. Coming to the Velvet Room was still a trip all on its own...

"Tennis and Zaimokuza," Ren muttered, taking a sip of the refreshing drink before leaning his head back to close his eyes.

Their next course of action? Gather information on the tennis club as well as Zaimokuza. Since Ryuji knew who Zaimokuza was, he was sent to gather info on him, while he was left to look for the tennis team.

Though in all honesty, he was a bit worried at how Ryuji was going to handle Zaimokuza, but he stayed optimistic...for now…

And then, there was Morgana, who he'd felt bad leaving behind, especially after all that the not-cat had done for them. He promised they'd be back for him, but that guilty feeling still lingered on.

"Hm…? No monkey today?"

His peace and quiet was now broken. That insult and that voice. He knew exactly who it belonged to.

Ren sighed deeply, cracking his eyes open.

"Yukinoshita. You're quite a ways away from club," he greeted tiredly. He wanted to enjoy his moment of loneliness just a tad longer, but if his club president were here…

"You're late for club," Yukinoshita scolded, and Ren shot up from his relaxed position immediately, flinching slightly at his back pains.

"What—shit…" He rubbed his back softly, hoping to quell the inflaming pain.

"Fifteen minutes late, in fact," She continued before raising a curious eyebrow, " And what happened to your back? Did you become an old man within these past fifteen minutes?"

"No, I...Forget it. What are you doing here?" Ren asked curtly, hoping to crush her curiosity. He didn't have an excuse right now.

"We got a request from Saika Totsuka, the tennis team captain."

Ren's eyes narrowed and relaxed just as quickly, passing unnoticeably under Yukinoshita's gaze. Oh how the ball had fallen into his hands.

"And the request?"

"There's an upcoming tennis event for the school in a few days, so he'd like to help the team improve."

So was he supposed to play tennis? Sure, he'd done it as PE activity back then, but he wasn't even that good at it. At least he knew the basics…?

"I...and how are we supposed to do that?" Ren raised a curious eyebrow.

"Well," a merciless smile (one that rivaled his Metaverse counterpart) crept up onto her face as she caressed her chin, "They run until they die, they swing until they die, and then they practice until they die."

Huh…?

"Huh?"

Wait, no! Don't kill his leads to Kamoshida! Was she conspiring with him or something?!

"Do you have a better alternative then?"

"I've...played tennis at my last high school for a bit," Ren took another sip of his Arginade. If he were to go about this without touching a racquet of his own, then maybe he would go along the lines of...

"If there are any new members, we could prioritize them over the experienced ones. I'm not that good at it, but I had a PE teacher who showed us proper form, so we could at least make sure that they have that down. After that, the more experienced players could teach them tactics. When to go for a slice, how far they should be depending on how fast the ball is, et cetera et cetera."

"Hm," Yukinoshita nodded at his sound logic, "Perhaps there is hope for you after all."

"I'm not as hopeless as Ryuji, you know," Ren fired back.

"Oh, that's right. You didn't answer my first question. Where is he?"

"He's…," Ren furrowed his brow, "Somewhere."

"You don't keep track of your pets?"

"We left a talking cat abandoned in an alleyway last night, so…"

"I know! And I'm here...to exact revenge!"

Ren stilled slightly at the recognizably high pitched voice.

Suddenly, a black and white cat jumped up onto the bench where he was sitting, seemingly glaring at Ren.

"And for the record, I'm not a ca—aaahhh…?"

"Nyaa...," he heard Yukinoshita mutter quietly, who was suddenly crouched next to Morgana, rubbing him behind his ears.

Why was she acting more like a cat than Morgana was?

That sight was...dare he say...absolutely adorable.

Ren couldn't help but snicker slightly. ' _Not a cat, my ass…'_

"How did you get here?" She cooed softly.

"Rennnnn! Help me!" Morgana complained hesitantly. He did not look like he wanted it to stop.

"You meow a lot, you know."

Ren gave Yukinoshita a curious gaze as she interacted with him. Could she...not hear him?

"Fine," Ren sighed, picking up the cat and placing him in his bag. The distraught look Yukinoshita had when he separated Morgana from her was a look he'd lock away into his memories, but unfortunately for her…

"We have a job to do," he reminded her, snapping her back into her usual self.

"R-Right," she replied, a soft red painting her cheeks, "Apologies that you had to witness that. It was unbecoming of me."

He shifted his back underneath his arm carefully, earning a curious gaze from his club president.

"Are you just going to steal him? Should I call the police?"

Ren's eyes widened, quickly remembering that Ryuji had name-dropped Morgana's name yesterday.

"He's my cat, damn it!"

Her eyes widened, "O-oh. Um...it was…"

"Morgana. His name is Morgana."

* * *

He was...so...tired…

This was the most physical assertion he'd done since that night he'd sprinted to that woman getting assaulted. So much for planning on helping the tennis team.

Totsuka and Ren had just run ten laps around the courts, did two reps of fifty push ups, and five suicides across the court.

It was a shame Ryuji had to go searching for Zaimokuza. He would have loved all this workout stuff, if Ren recalled correctly from the conversation while having ramen the night before.

"You actually managed to keep up, Amamiya-kun."

"Yeah...I'm...surprised too…" Ren panted, lifting himself up.

His—well, their contractor? Saika Totsuka. He (Totsuka confirmed his gender himself) was apparently a classmate of his and also the tennis team's captain. He came to them wanting to help boost morale for the rest of the tennis team by training harder.

But...it made no sense. Not that Ren would want the team to go to Kamoshida for help, but why them?

"Oh? Are you tired already?" Yukinoshita called out.

Ren looked towards Yukinoshita, who was sitting on one of the benches by the fence, cradling his bag closely. More specifically, the _cat_ in his bag.

"I don't want to hear it, I was the one who had to change out and do all the fitness stuff. You're still in your school uniform."

"Yeah," he heard a muffled high pitched voice, his bag squirming slightly in the process, "As a Phantom Thief, you gotta keep your endurance up!"

Shut up, Morgana.

"Eh…? Did you hear a meow just now?" Totsuka asked curiously, looking around the environment.

"Must be your imagination," Ren dismissed.

"Hm, well now would be a good time to take a break then. My...uh...my feet are kinda tired, you see," Totsuka said with a suspiciously awkward laugh.

Something in his mind nagged at him to watch Totsuka as he walked. And when he focused on Totsuka's legs, he seemed to be able to observe...everything. The slight limp as he pulled his body weight upwards to avoid placing it fully onto his foot, the breeze flapping his tennis shoes; he could even hear Yukinoshita breathing and Morgana humming softly to himself.

But that wasn't the only thing he noticed.

The world dimmed blue. Like when Arsène first appeared to him and time stopped. Only this wasn't the case. What...what was this…?

Was this another one of Igor's doing? The Velvet Room master did say that he was going to be...gifting him things as time went on, but he was expecting materialistic things, like maybe a new knife or something.

Either way, he wasn't in a position to freak out about this right now, lest he be seen as insane.

Returning his focus onto the matter at hand, Ren's eyes narrowed as he stared at Totsuka. Sure enough, he was limping.

' _He hides it well,'_ Ren thought as he joined up with Totsuka, who was now sitting beside Yukinoshita.

"Totsuka," Ren said with a sharpness in his voice, earning the attention of said boy.

"Y-Yeah…?" He squirmed under Ren's gaze.

"Why are you hiding your limp?"

"Ah...ahah...so you noticed," Totsuka said with an awkward smile, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.

"How did you know, Amamiya-san?" Yukinoshita asked. She was still clutching onto his bag like her life depended on it.

Careful, or Morgana will suffocate!

Not wanting to release any information of his sudden newfound power, Ren quickly racked his brain to, put it simply, bullshit.

"Ah, well…," Ren started before saying hurriedly, "I just know what it's like to hide an injury."

Regaining his ropes, he began speaking with a stern voice, "You can't push yourself too hard with that injury. Or else Yukinoshita really will train you until you die."

"Ehhhhh? Yukinoshita-san! You were serious about that?" Totsuka asked in shock, his mouth agape as he stared at the sitting club president.

"Of course, how else are you supposed to get better? Furthermore, you've proven that you can work under extrenuous circumstances. Your current training will no longer suffice."

"I...uh...I just feel like there's a more tangible way of improving…" Totsuka scratched his cheek, laughing nervously.

Ren looked down contemplatively as Yukinoshita and the tennis team captain continued to held their conversation. It would be a good time to try to pry more information out of Totsuka about the rest of the team and Kamoshida while he was busy. Though he can't ask too many questions or else he'll be coming off as suspicious.

"Totsuka," Ren started, drawing the boy's attention, as he continued to think about how to frame his question, "Why isn't Kamoshida training you?"

"That's a good question. Why come to us?" Yukinoshita added.

"A-ah...you see…"

Then, he saw it. For a split second, Ren could have sworn fear flickered in his eyes.

"K-Kamoshida-sensei is gonna be busy for the next few days trying to finish putting together the scrimage."

Ren pushed onward. "Wouldn't he have the tennis team, or at the very least, you helping out with preparing for the scrimage?"

"W-well, he actually..." Totsuka looked tense now. Too tense.

"Hayama-kun! Look, it's the tennis courts! I want to play tennis!" Came a loud, shrill voice on the other side of the fence.

Ren, Yukinoshita, and Totsuka looked up in the direction of the voice and they saw a group of students.

One was a relatively tall blonde haired boy with long hair, another was a girl with blonde curly hair, though her's was a shade lighter than the boy's, and the other four...well, they stood slightly apart from the two, looking like filler characters. Though Ren was sure he'd seen a few of them somewhere before.

The group was peering into the tennis courts, with the blonde haired girl enthusiastic to play. Though of all the courts within the fence, they were specifically looking at the one they were using.

"Ah, Miura-san!" Totsuka called out, "We're not exactly playing tennis, so…"

"Huh? I can't hear you, you know!" The blonde girl, Miura, shouted back, though Ren could hear the slight bit of condescension in her tone of voice. This was only supported by Totsuka looking to the ground uncomfortably.

"Totsuka got permission to use this court, so you can't use it," Ren interjected, raising the volume in his voice so they could hear him.

"Ehh..? Who're…," Miura scrunched her forehead, staring at Ren before raising her eyebrows, "Oh! Hayama-kun! That's the delinquent student I keep on hearing about!"

She tugged on the blonde haired boy's sleeve. So that was Hayama. Had Ren seen him around before?

Ren could only sigh at her declaration, and he heard Morgana's muffled voice, "Don't just let her call you that…!"

"So then why are you using it, delinquent?" Miura sneered.

"He asked us to help him practice," Ren replied calmly. He wasn't going to let her get him pent up.

"That's right. So I'd appreciate if you left us to our business," Yukinoshita added sharply.

"Come now," Hayama finally spoke, looking at Ren apologetically, "Let's not pick a fight. It's more fun to play with everyone."

"But...Hayama-kun," Miura started, her voice becoming softer and whiney as she pleaded, "You don't want to be seen affiliated with the delinquent. I heard he brings a gun to school, you know. He might shoot you if you win."

Ren glared sharply at the shrill girl. No he does not! Well...he made sure to leave his _toy_ gun at home before coming to school today.

"Then how about a match?" Ren asked challengingly, the tone of his voice taking an edge, "We win, you leave. You win, you can take the courts. But you have to help Totsuka."

"A-Amamiya-kun/Amamiya-san...!" he heard Yukinoshita and Totsuka gasp behind him, as he took a step forward.

The group, save for Hayama and Miura, instinctively took a step back.

"It sounds like fun," the blonde haired boy replied back, a diplomatic smile on his face. Miura, on the other hand…

"Fine by me! We'll have to put this delinquent back in his place!"

"I shall be participating too," Yukinoshita said, taking the spot beside Ren.

"Huh? Yukinoshita? You know your status is already bad as Sobu's Ice Queen. It's only going to get worse by being near that guy!" Miura addressed his club president, though she stood her ground.

"He's a club mate. And I'd appreciate it if you stopped making transgressions against my club," Yukino replied, her voice calm, but sturdy.

"Th-then we'll make it a mixed doubles," Hayama said, gesturing to Totsuka, "Would it be possible for you to referee?"

"Yeah, I can do that," Totsuka agreed willingly, taking the seat that overlooked the tennis courts.

Ren took up his racquet, shifting his gaze to the black haired girl beside him with a smirk, "Guess we're doing this."

With a soft "hmph", she turned swiftly and walked towards the nearby bathrooms to change.

Ren looked around cautiously. Hayama and Miura left as well, most likely to change, while everyone else was doing their own little thing before the match began.

Ren walked to his bag.

"Morgana," he unzipped his bag, and a cat's head popped up.

"Finally! It was getting hot in there."

"Keep it down…!" Ren admonished with a harsh whisper, looking back at everyone. Hayama and Miura were still gone. "Go find Ryuji. Tell him I'm with the tennis team's captain, and then ask him about his progress on Zaimokuza."

"Gotchya! Leave it to me! My stealth is unparalleled!" Morgana replied, and Ren tilted his back underneath the bench, allowing the not-cat to jump out.

"Heh. Breaking you out of that jail cell says otherwise," Ren replied mirthfully, earning a small glare from the cat before he watched him dart away, using the benches as cover.

"Are you ready?" Came Yukinoshita's voice, and he took a startled step backwards, dropping his bag in the process.

"Please don't hurt Morgana. Or I'll have to hurt you."

Ren looked up to Yukinoshita, who had changed into her tennis attire. Unlike his green uniform, she wore a pink collared tennis shirt, a white tennis skirt, and her black school thigh high socks.

Ren had to avert his eyes quickly. He will admit, she was cute.

"N-No worries," Ren coughed. "Let's do this."

* * *

"This is a half-set! Three games, best two out of three! No ad!" Totsuka called out from the referee's chair.

Ren, Yukinoshita, Hayama, and Miura were met at the net, with Yukinoshita holding two fresh tennis balls.

"Fish up, fish down?" She asked their oppenents, and Hayama and Miura looked at each other before looking back at them.

"Fish down."

Yukinoshita spun her racquet by the head, and when it fell, she inspected the symbol on her handle.

"Fish up. I'll serve," Yukinoshita said, looking to Ren for confirmation, who nodded in response.

"Then we'll take this side," Hayama said, gesturing to their side of the court they were on.

With that, they took their positions on their court.

Hayama was receiving, Miura was net. Ren was net, Yukinoshita was serving.

Ren took on his ready form and bounced slightly on the balls of his feet, trying to release the anxious feeling that usually bubbled up at the start of a competition.

"Zero, zero! Love all! First serve!" he heard Yukinoshita shout, the loudest he'd ever heard from her by the way, and the next thing he knew, a speeding ball zoomed inches past his head, bouncing to its respective zone before bouncing again out of bounds.

' _Holy shit! That was...good!'_ Ren thought to himself as he stared at the dumbfounded looks on his opponents' faces. So she wasn't just good at baking, she was good at tennis too?

Hayama laughed awkwardly, picking up the ball that rolled to his feet and tossing it back to Yukinoshita, who managed to catch it.

"You're still as good at tennis as I remembered," he said, smiling, but was met with silence. Ren turned to look at his club president, who just assumed the left position.

So she knows Hayama? Interesting.

"Ready?" Yukinoshita asked simply, and their opponents switched. Miura was receiving now, while Hayato took to the net.

By now, a small crowd had formed apart from the initial group that accompanied Miura and Hayama.

"Hayama! Hayama!" The group cheered as they watched with vaunted interest.

"Fifteen, love! First serve!" Yukinoshita shouted, and another fast ball whizzed past Ren's face, though this time, Miura was able to return the ball with just as fast a speed.

Thus, an aggressive match of back-and-forth ensued, with Yukinoshita and Miura returning the ball to each other every time, though they seemed to be too fast for Ren. The match finally ended with a point for Yukinoshita and Ren.

That was how the rest of the matches in the first game went, turning a mixed doubles into a two versus one with Yukinoshita. At game point, they took the first game.

Ren turned to look back to congratulate his teammate, but what he saw was slightly concerning. She was panting heavily, her racquet trembling slightly in her arms.

"Sorry...I...don't have much stamina," she muttered breathlessly, quietly enough for them to hear.

He gave her a small smile of encouragement. "No worries. You carried that first match. I'll try to match."

Despite that, he knew he couldn't really do that. He was mediocre at this sport at best.

"Tch!" they heard Miura click her tongue, "That was a good show, Yukinoshita, but I'll turn things around now."

She bounced the ball a few times before reciting, "Zero, one! Love all! First serve!"

And within the first ten seconds, Miura and Hayama got the point. Ren couldn't even react.

' _She's fast…,'_ Ren thought troubled. With Yukinoshita out of commission and his tennis skills, no doubt, their opponents were going to take this game.

And he was right. Miura took the win effortlessly for this match. Yukinoshita was able to return one hit, but to no avail.

And now, it was his turn to serve.

"I wish you luck, Amamiya-san," he heard Yukinoshita say, which caused him to shift his glance towards her, but she just faced forward, not looking at him.

"Yeah…," Ren muttered. This was the defining match. He had better make it count.

"One, one! Love all! First serve!" Ren lifted the ball into the air and with a jump, he swung downwards, the ball hitting the other side of the court.

"Out!" he heard Totsuka call out.

It seemed his opponents knew it was going to be an out as well. They didn't even budge.

"Tch," Ren clicked his tongue, readying the second ball he held, "Love all! Second serve!"

This one went in, though at a much milder pace than his first serve. Though because of that, Miura punished him heavily, slamming the ball back onto their side and taking the point.

Instinctively, he eyed Yukinoshita as they switched sides, but she said nothing. Perhaps she had no energy to insult him…?

"Go Hayama! Go Miura! Crush that delinquent!" the crowd rallied loudly, and though he tried his best to not let it get to his head, Ren could feel his morality slipping.

Just like...the first two days of him being here…

"Ignore them," Yukinoshita said simply, though she was still staring forward. If only it were that simple…

"Come on, Renren! Show them that will of rebellion!"

"Let's go Yukinon! Renren! You got this!"

Ren's eyes widened slightly, as he looked towards the new yelling. There, off to the side was Ryuji and, surprisingly, Yuigahama waving and shouting at them. Behind them, Ren could see a large boy meekly hiding behind them. That must be Zaimokuza.

' _Ryuji secured the bag. Now it's my turn,'_ Ren closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Whatever it was that happened earlier, he hoped it would come back.

"I can see it!" Ren shouted loudly, opening his eyes as the world dimmed blue. The tennis ball in his hand glowed brightly.

"Love, fifteen! First serve!"

He launched the ball up into the air, and out of instinct, he waited for the ball to reach its apex, before jumping upwards and swinging his racquet down, slicing the ball onto their court.

The footprints that he could see on the ground indicated that Hayama stumbled in his receive, and the point was theirs.

"Huuuh?" Miura looked at him in shock, but Ren only smirked in response.

"I'm just getting started," Ren replied, his smirk turning into a merciless smile.

"About time," he heard Yukinoshita say, though he paid no need to her this time.

When Ren got the ball back, he switched to the left and started the second point.

"Fifteen all! First serve!"

Now it was his turn for an aggressive two versus one, carrying his duo to victory in the match.

Was he cheating? Maybe...but nobody needed to know that. And nobody _would_ know that.

The only issue was that Ren didn't know how to control this ability of his, and the world kept on switching between the dim blue of his skill and the natural vibrant colors of reality.

Because of that, the match ended up dragging on much longer than usual, with Ren fumbling a few of the points as well.

The game was now tied to deuce.

"Finish strong you guys! You got this!"

"Yeah, Renren! You can do this!"

Ryuji and Yuigahama's cheers clashed with the crowd who continued to cheer for Hayama and Miura.

"Deuce! First serve!"

The world dimmed blue as he launched the ball into the air, serving another slice.

Their opponents seemed much more ready this time though, repositioning themselves to anticipate the bounce and returning it with ease.

With his newfound power shutting off again, he relied on instincts to return the ball, though without its help, he returned it as a lob.

Miura fell back, raising her racquet up into the air, anticipating the ball.

Ren's mind went on overdrive, trying to figure out where she would aim it.

"Focus!" He shouted and the world dimmed again, as he analyzed Miura. The ball touched the ground and back up again. At first, it looked like Miura was going to aim it towards him, but he saw the slightest change of angle in her racquet.

It was unnoticeable to the naked eyes, but…

"Yukinoshita!" Ren shouted, waiting for Miura to make contact with the ball. At that point on, it was going to require utmost reflex.

Fortunately, his partner was ready, indicated by the slight twitch of her ears.

Ren continued, "Cover middle!"

For a second, Yukinoshita wasted no time rushing over to the middle, deflecting the ball as it made contact with her racquet. And with the ball's fast momentum, it returned to their opponents' court before embedding itself into the chain-linked fence.

"G-game! The winner is Yukino Yukinoshita and Ren Amamiya!"

With the blue hue making way for the colors of the real world, Ren shut his eyes harshly. Too much of using that _thing_ was giving him a headache.

"Hayato! Hayato! Miura! Miura!"

It seemed that, regardless of the outcome, the crowd was still chanting their opponents names. Anything to avoid recognizing the delinquent, it seemed.

But nevertheless, he and Yukinoshita walked up to the net to meet with Hayama and Miura.

Ren held out his hand for them to shake. Can't forget proper post-match etiquette, after all.

Yukinoshita didn't seem to share the same sentiment, instead opting to stand silently behind him.

"I'm not touching that hand, delinquent," Miura stated, crossing her arms.

Hayato, however, took Ren's offer with a diplomatic smile, "Heh, good game. You got us in the second half."

"Yeah."

"Woaaah! Look at Hayato shake that delinquent's hand! He's so nice!"

When all was said and then, the crowd finally cleared and the blonde duo left, leaving Ren, Totsuka, Ryuji, Yukinoshita, Zaimokuza, and Yuigahama.

"Great job guys! Yukinoshita-san! You decimated them in the first game! And Amamiya-kun! You clutched it so well!" Totsuka congratulated them, running up to them with a smile on his face.

"Duuuude! I didn't know that you two played tennis! Great job out there!" Ryuji shouted, congratulating Ren and Yukinoshita by swinging them around his arms.

"Hrgh—!"

Only to rub his aching ribcage.

"Damn it, woman! Why do you keep doing that?!"

"I was fearing for my chastity," Yukinoshita replied simply before looking to the two tag-alongs, Yuigahama and Zaimokuza. "But what are you two doing here?"

"Well~. I was kind of bored," Yuigahama scratched her cheek, stinging her tongue out, "But then I saw Ryu scrambling around the school, so I tailed him! And and and get this! He was talking to this cat! I didn't know he was so weird!"

"Am not!" Ryu...ji rebutted, stomping his foot down, "You ever come across a talking ca—Oof!"

Ren nudged him. Hard. In the exact same spot Yukinoshita jabbed him.

Suddenly, Morgana jumped out of Ryuji's bag and onto the ground in the center of the group, revealing himself.

"Ahhhhh, that was a good game, Ren! I'll bet your proficiency and endurance got better in the Metaverse!"

"Why?" Ren had to ask, as everyone stared at the cat on the ground.

"I was already seen by these two. What's two more?" Morgana replied, wagging his tail, "As long as nobody else finds out, we're good! Plus...it's not like anyone can hear me speak."

"Hey, that cat meows a lot…," Ren heard Yuigahama say offhandedly.

"Ah, Yuigahama-san, so about that nickname for me earlier…," Yukinoshita suddenly started, as the girls began conversing amongst themselves.

Dropping the conversation with Morgana there, he switched his attention to Zaimokuza, who stood further from the group.

Compared to his shadow, Zaimokuza looked...cooler. He wore a brown trenchcoat over his jacket, and a matching fedora, making him look like a certain robotic detective from a certain post-apocalyptic game.

"Zaimokuza," Ren started, taking a step to the distanced boy.

Zaimokuza stood stiffly, replying in a hesitant voice. "Y-Yeah…?"

"We need to talk. You too, Totsuka."

* * *

Ren stood in front of Café Leblanc feeling tired, musty, and sore. All he wanted to do now was just hop into bed. And while he was curious about that new thing he was able to do, he hoped that Igor and the wardens didn't call him to the Velvet Room.

He pushed the door open, and the jingle accompanied it. There, sitting by the counter, was his guardian who was reading a newspaper.

Even though Sakura-san's attention seemed to be on the newspaper, he looked pissed. Like when you've been out all day without telling your parents, and your mother is waiting for you by the couch. He even got the impatient foot-tapping down.

"Where were you?" he asked impatiently, not even bothering to look up from his newspaper.

"I was playing tennis."

"Suuure you were," he drew out, skepticism present in his voice.

Ren didn't have anymore energy to deal with (and he was being frank, here), Sakura-san's bullshit, so he opted to just walk past the man and up his room.

"Hey," he called out, placing his newspaper aggressively onto the counter with a flutter, "In the future, try not to come back so damn late. Think about how I have to wait for you!"

Ren turned his head, giving the older man a simple nod before continuing on upstairs. The lights turned off and the door jingled.

_Ping~!_

Just as he finished changing and climbed onto bed, he checked his phone. A message from Ryuji.

_[Whaddaya think about what Morgana told us?]_

He stared at the message, reading it over and over trying to formulate a response. What did he think…?

Their current investigation came out to be fruitless, despite managing to snag Totsuka and Zaimokuza.

They were hesitant to answer any more questions regarding Kamoshida and the tennis team, and Ren was worried that they might end up going to Kamoshida about their snooping.

Luckily, training with Totsuka continued on tomorrow as well, and this time it was going to be with the whole tennis team. If Totsuka was walking with a limp, then they could determine whether or not Totsuka was being suspicious or was just toughing it out.

Either way, it begged the question for why they were trying to cover it up. What sort of hold did Kamoshida have on the tennis team and on Sobu to where he could get away with doing such things?

Of course, there was apparently a solution to this problem. Morgana had told them about Kamoshida's Palace and Treasure and how it can affect them. But it wasn't a simple solution.

" _If we erase a Palace, they lose all sense of desire. All motivation to eat, sleep, love...you know. They may even die…"_

So in the end, they were going to have to interact with his Palace. No doubt, as they continue to explore the Palace, they were probably going to uncover even more horrible things about Kamoshida. More reasons to put Kamoshida higher up on their shitlist.

But what if it would get to the point where killing Kamoshida would be more and more enticing, the more they learned? Was it something he was willing to commit to…?

Ren didn't want to kill anyone. He wanted justice for the tennis team. For Ryuji. For anyone else Kamoshida may have wronged. But was he willing to get his hands dirty to achieve that justice? Even the slightest bit of transgressions on his end was enough to make him a black mark on society. But to become a killer? A murderer? Was there such a thing as blacker than black?

Ren hesitantly typed in his message and sent it, allowing his phone to drop onto his chest.

_[I don't know.]_

Morgana seemed to be the only one convinced that the potential risk of death was worth it to get that man to stop. At least the not-cat was willing to give them time to think about it, leaving them alone to their thoughts after dropping that bombshell of a suggestion,

_Ping~!_

Another message. Ren picked it up and read it.

_[Yeaaah man, same. The dude deserves horrible shit, but he doesn't deserve to die!]_

_[We still need evidence that he's doing these things.]_

_[Right. After tomorrow is the scrimage, so we should be able to finish up our lil investigation then.]_

As Ren was about to type in another response, another message popped up a split second after the last one.

_[Anyways dude, I'm headin to bed. Gnight.]_

Ren erased what he was going to type and replied in kind.

_[Night.]_

He was starting to get really sleepy anyways.

With that, Ren plugged his phone into his charger and allowed himself to finally rest for the day.

* * *

Hiratsuka-sensei wasn't here today. Instead, they got Ushimura-sensei, who was a stocky middle-aged man with a blocky, chiseled face and glasses. According to the students he overheard on his walk to school, the man was rather uptight, strict, and "an asshole".

Today, they were learning about the separation of powers. Well, he would be learning about it, but that just wasn't feasible right now.

"Have you made up your mind?" Morgana asked quietly from inside his desk.

Ren looked around in alarm, darting his eyes around the room.

Huh...so Hayama was also in this class. As well as some of the people from his group the other day.

"No matter how much thinking you do, you know there's only one option. Just listen to me."

"Why are you in there?" Ren asked hushedly through gritted teeth.

"Hmmmm...did I just hear a cat?" Ushimura-sensei suddenly asked, causing Ren to tense in his seat.

Suddenly the class erupted in a soft murmur, some chatting amongst themselves, while others looked around curiously.

God damn it, Morgana!

Trying to not look suspicious, Ren warily scanned the room. Yuigahama was looking towards him with a curious face.

And Totsuka...was avoiding his gaze? How curious.

"M-M-Meow…!" Morgana said in a rough voice.

Ren had to use all his willpower to prevent himself from facepalming, but even that wasn't enough, judging by the hand that connected to his forehead.

That was the shittiest impersonation of a cat in proper human history, ever. And he was a cat! How?!

"You're not making things any better…" Ren muttered, adjusting his glasses.

"Could that cat from yesterday be nearby…?" Ushimaru-sensei asked lowly, before shouting to the class, "Settle down! We're in the middle of an important lecture here!"

With that, the class returned to silence, with each student looking towards the board.

_Bzzt bzzt._

Oh, for the love of…!

As Ushimaru-sensei turned to write on the board, Ren whipped out his phone discreetly. It was a message from Ryuji.

_[Duuuuude, I've been thinking about it.]_

Ren looked up. His teacher's back was still facing them. Perfect.

He typed hurriedly.

_[Concentrate in class.]_

_[It's no use, I'm too distracted by all this. Do we just gotta go along with what the cat says?]_

Another text followed right after.

_[That damn furball…]_

"He's so getting it later," Morgana muttered from within his desk.

Then, he felt a murderous intent, reminiscent of that tough shadow in the Palace.

Ren looked up from his phone and found that he was no longer looking at his teacher's back, instead looking into a sharp and angry glare. And it was staring directly at him.

"Amamiya-san," Ushimaru-sensei started, "In my class, you should be paying attention TO ME!"

And before he knew it, he recoiled at the sudden impact of a small round object smashing into the center of his forehead.

The objected bounced onto the desk, and as Ren massaged his aching forehead (that was going to bruise later, no doubt), he stared down at the object that his teacher threw at him.

It was a piece of chalk.

Everyone laughed at him and his sudden predicament, which Ren thought to be slightly funny too. Who knew those tropes about teachers throwing something at students were true?

However, his humor quickly died as nearly everyone began speaking about him.

"Ha, serves him right."

"That's what the delinquent gets for not paying attention."

"He was probably texting his drug dealer."

Ren sighed, glancing at Yuigahama, who had a sorry look on her face.

At least not _everyone_ participated in this.

* * *

"So, Yuigahama texted me."

Those were the first words that came out of his club president's mouth as he entered the clubroom.

"Did she now?" Ren asked dismissively, though he wondered when she'd gotten Yuigahama's number. After all, she seemed like the type to not have a phone. Or social media. Or friends.

He took a seat at his usual spot. Though this time, Ren noticed that their club room setup was more elaborate the last time he came in here.

There was an elongated table now, with two chairs placed at the end where Ren normally sat and on the other side, a single chair which was occupied by Yukinoshita.

"She did. Something about hiding your cat in your desk, and Ushimaru-sensei hitting you with his chalk," Yukinoshita replied, her eyes trained onto her book.

"Oh...yeah, that...happened," Ren said, pulling out The Great Thief. He was almost done with the book.

The room returned to silence after Ren's weak reply, with the sound of pages flipping and the clock ticking overtaking the ambience.

Ren took a side-glance at Yukinoshita's book. The Epic of Gilgamesh, it said.

' _Of course, she would be interested in the classics,'_ Ren thought offhandedly, before returning his attention to his book.

For some reason, he had the nagging feeling of forgetting something important.

Suddenly, the door slid open aggressively, revealing Ryuji.

"Dude! You forgot about me!"

"Oh dear," he heard Yukinoshita mutter offhandedly, though he just stared at Ryuji with a calculating gaze.

No, he wasn't the important thing he was forgetting.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Ryuji asked in confusion, before his eyes widened. He exclaimed happily, "Sweet setup, Yukinoshita!"

Ryuji received only a huff of air from her, as he took the empty seat beside Ren.

"So—"

Ren heard his bag unzip before a cat suddenly jumped up onto their table, giving Ren an irritated glare.

"I could not breathe! You zipped the bag up all the way! I thought I was gonna die!"

Ah, so that was what he forgot.

"Sorry," Ren replied simply, not bothering to look up from his book.

"That's it?! You could have killed me!"

"Dude! You brought Morgana here too?!" Ryuji exclaimed.

"I-it's your cat…"

Ren noticed that Yukinoshita was suddenly closer than where she was initially. Much closer.

She must really like cats.

"I did not bring Morgana here, he just...I found him in my desk," Ren replied defensively to Ryuji.

"Huhhhh, so this is where you stay after school?" Morgana looked around, pacing lightly around the table as he looked around the room. "Not baaad! I quite like it! And that girl from yesterday is here too!"

"Amamiya-kun, your cat meows a lot, you know," Yukinoshita said.

"Yeah, Renren, it's like your cat doesn't know when to shut up!"

"Hey doofus! I read your text earlier about what you said!" Morgana warned, taking an intimidating step towards the blonde boy, who fell back into his seat and was now trying to fuse with it as he sunk further in.. "Furball...was it?"

"H-hey, Ren...Morgana's scaring me...Ren? Ren?! Yukinosh— Ahhhhhhh!"

Ren ignored Ryuji and Morgana's shenanigans, though Yukinoshita seemed to watch the interaction with interest.

"Morgana doesn't like Ryuji, does he?"

"Their friendship with each other is like your friendship with Ryuji," Ren said, flipping a page through his book despite the sound of yelling and meowing occurring right behind beside him.

"Gross. Please don't make the assumption that he is my friend ever again," Yukinoshita shuddered, returning to her post at the end of the table once again.

Ren raised an eyebrow at her statement.

"Huh...I would have assumed as such. I guess I was wrong."

"As I have said, your assumption is disgusting."

Now that Ren thought about it...she seemed to be alone most of the time. The only time she's been with someone else was when she was needed. Or by extension, when _they_ were needed.

"Do you...have friends, Yukinoshita?"

Ren was met with a silence that seemed to drag on for quite a while, before finally, she responded.

"First of all, I need a definition for—"

"Woah, stop," Ryuji interrupted, and the two looked toward the blonde who was holding Morgana at arm's length as the cat tried to scratch at his face. "I just wanted to butt in to say that that's something someone who doesn't have friends would say."

"Source?" Yukinoshita asked.

"Wh—," Ryuji huffed in exasperation, "What do you mean 'source'?! It's common sense!"

"Ah, so it seems that single celled organisms _can_ utilize the concept of common sense."

"Y-You…! God damn it woman! Morgana! Sick her!" Ryuji commanded, though nothing came of his threat.

"Hell no! Break time's over for you!" Morgana retorted, before attempting to resume his assault.

Ignoring their continued shenanigans, Ren turned a curious look to Yukinoshita.

"Why don't you have friends?"

"Because...I'm too beautiful," an uncharacteristically wry smile graced her face, as she looked out the window. "I was bullied back then, because I would excel in things other girls couldn't put in effort to achieve. It got to the point where the other girls were trying to bring me down. They'd steal my indoor shoes, my recorder, and the likes. And it got to a point where I stopped caring."

Allowing for her first remark to slide, Ren focused on her words. They carried a somber that only a child robbed of having a normal childhood would have.

Society was cruel. Especially in one full of younger kids, who were still trying to find themselves, who still didn't understand differences.

"Damn, that's tough," Ryuji said in a surprisingly soft voice. It seemed the cat and the human stopped their little dog fight and were also listening in.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Morgana said sympathetically, though Ren knew she couldn't understand him. It was the thought that counted though.

"Well, if you want, Renren and I could—"

"No to Amamiya-kun, and absolutely not to you. That's not possible."

"You didn't even let me finish!" Ryuji shouted in exasperation, throwing his hands up into the air. "There goes my good will!"

Ren just sighed. And...did she just switch honorifics on him or…?

"What about Yuigahama, at least?" he asked. Maybe Yukinoshita found a friend in her? The orange haired girl did keep calling her 'Yukinon' yesterday.

"...Yes, she's my first friend," Yukinoshita said, before shaking her head and redirecting her attention to the clock. "Where is Totsuka? He should have been here by now."

' _At least she has a friend now,'_ Ren thought, with a small smile, before addressing the issue at hand.

"Not sure," he replied, checking his phone for the time, "It's already been thirty minutes."

Yukinoshita looked at him with an accusatory gaze. "What did you do to him? When you took Totsuka and that...Zai...Zay...Zuko, was it? After our match yesterday, you and Sakamoto-san took those two to the side. I just assumed you threatened them into doing some underground work."

Ren scrunched his forehead slightly.

"Just some business. Might have been underground work, who knows?"

Yukinoshita opened her mouth to reply, though nothing came out. Instead she closed her mouth and caressed her chin. She muttered to herself, "I see. Yes, that makes sense. It must be some black market thing…"

Ren blinked. Wait, no! He's not a delinquent! He was joking!

As Ren opened his mouth to reply, he felt a tap on his arm.

"I can always track him down, you know?"

Ren shifted his gaze to the cat, who was wagging his tail lazily. He nodded in confirmation, and the cat hopped off the table to search for his objective.

Though he was already hit by a roadblock, as he tried to paw at the door.

"God damn it! If I was human, I'd—"

Ren sighed, lifting himself off from his seat before walking over to the door to slide it open for Morgana.

"Careful," Ren said lowly, earning a cat's version of a thumbs-up before Morgana darted down the hallway.

He returned to his seat right after, noticing a side-glance from Yukinoshita.

"Where's Morgana going?" She asked.

Ren merely shook his head in response.

"Totsuka should be on the way soon enough."

She raised an eyebrow at him, but said nothing, instead opting to return to her book.

Following in her steps, Ren did the same, while Ryuji…

The snores coming from the blonde already indicated what he was doing.

Time went and passed, with Ren becoming more worried by the minute. Morgana had yet to come back, and neither did Totsuka.

Eventually, the sun began to set, signalling for the end of club activity. Ren nudged Ryuji, who awoke with a jolt, and they helped Yukinoshita put everything away.

They heard a soft pounding at the sliding door, and Ren walked over hastily to open it. He expected to find a girlish boy with white hair, but instead, he found the space at eye level empty.

Looking down, he saw Morgana looking towards the ground. Ren could swear his tail was swinging in disappointment.

"I looked everywhere. I couldn't find him…"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me in the first chapter: No upload schedule because I am a busybody. Also me: drops three chapters within five days or so. But it's not my fault I'm shirking my responsibilities for this! This is hella fun to write!
> 
> So here we have chapter three. Now, as you can see, I'm starting to derive chronologically from Ore. The tennis request was a perfect setup for getting the first Palace rolling, so that was coming before episode two, though because things are going on a day by day basis, I'm worried about making the character/relationship(both romantic and platonic) progression too fast paced. So if y'all think so, let me know.
> 
> And as always, I appreciate any feedback you have to give me. How were my fight scenes? My dialogue? Was the story comprehensible and easy to follow? Are my characters in character? One thing I'm trying to work on is descriptive and actions. Let me know and I'll try to improve for the next chapter.
> 
> And also, I realize I'm inconsistent with honorifics, so I'll be going back and adjusting the other chapters. I might just have Ren drop the honorifics for students and people his age, while keeping it for those older than him. Though it's really hard to refer to Sojiro as 'Sakura-san' just because...you know, that's Brojiro. But I can't wait to get to the point where he finally stops addressing Sojiro as Sakura-san.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, and thank you for joining. I decided to write this as both a celebration for the release of P5S in the West as well as learning that 8man gets with best girl. And thus, I have come to the great conclusion that, why not write a crossover between P5 and OreGairu? (Despite the Xover ship is Ren and Yukino, and 8man is nowhere to be seen).
> 
> A few things I'd like to address though. One, criticism is greatly appreciated. I want to better my writing as this fic goes on. While I do enjoy the 8man first POVs that many OreGairu fics use, I personally feel that first-person POVs aren't really my thing, though I do really like the emotional depth that first-person POV brings. So I'm trying to incorporate a third-person POV that also has some of that first-person character insight.
> 
> Second, I understand that a lot of OreGairu fics incorporate a lot of pop culture references. I will try to do that, but my reference library at the moment is uh...well...lackluster. I have indeed tried to incorporate a couple of references already, though I haven't cited them (which I should probably start doing, idk. Lemme know if I should). So try to find 'em. I think three of the four of them are pretty obvious. Or maybe all of them are.  
> Third, like the billowing blue fire said, the cards have been shuffled. Some characters in P5 are going to be replaced, though you'll have to see who. Or maybe you already know who. Either way, I hope my story telling makes up for removing them.
> 
> And lastly, as for scheduled updating...not sure. I'm not going to be making any promises, as I am indeed a college student, who is also a corporate slave to a family business.  
> Anddd I think that's it. I greatly appreciate you sticking to the end, and I hope you've enjoyed what you read and what you may continue to read.


End file.
